Hello, Wanderer,
Do you really need a socialist here? Wouldn't you get what you can get all around? Common good, social justice, equality on virtually everything, only government can provide morally good things etc. etc. I am particularky upset about their concepts on equality. Do you think that various tyrants who carried a "socialist" in their self-attached labels ever considered themselves equal to anybody else? Should a creative genius have the same income as the drug addicted (virtually never sober) bum? The way I understand our Constitution, we are all equal under the law, i.e in front of the government. How can we then allow government to treat us so blatantly unequally? "We the people" are allowing it at our eternal disgrace and ultimate demise. What do you think?
All the best.
Maritimus

Same with the two of us!:)

Being fairly new here, and with health situations at home that keep me well occupied, I don't often get the chance to contribute, but these forums are my lifeline! Welcome jbrenner and I can sympathize with your at-work non-intellectuals situation and your daughter's at-school situation. If the Gulch ever decides to move to our own city (not gated, just quietly bought up by $ one home at a time), I will be there! It would be a huge pleasure and an immense challenge to keep up with so many thinking neighbors in person, but until that day, I will happily enjoy our online discussions.Again, welcome!

Welcome to you as well, Katrina.

DITTO!

Needed in the Gulch: Intelligent socialists willing to explain and defend their beliefs and value systems, instead of socialist lurkers, pretending to be liberal thinkers, who don't advance, but obfuscate the discussion. Start from fundamentals and give me an honest argument, instead of telling me you like Ayn Rand but then in every case oppose the things she stood for.

VIOLENCE WORKS! All around the world, everywhere I've been it's been obvious the side willing to do the most violence wins. So it is in conflicts of the mind; those who allow their opponents to avoid the fight will be subsumed into the very groups they failed to oppose.

Enough of these shills. Where are the flaming socialists, telling us they have a right to the fruits of our labors?

Rush Limbaugh said that we should always have one socialist around, just to remind us that we don't want any more socialists.

yessir, we are living in a different world ... since I was a teenager in the 1960s! I just talked with a neighbor via cellphone an hour ago, and said Hi to the NSA too, so we are lucky here -- a little cluster of 3 families along a lane where the trees close in over the road to remind us of the Smokies, just to the east of us.
this is my first home, Jb, after 60 years of searching. my wife and I had it built 7 years ago here in an actual gulch (with topsoil 14 feet deep in the bottom). and, surprisingly, I have found another home here online. never thought it possible.
Thank You for your good work and for being a wonderful "houseguest" here with us!!! -- j

My daughter has no problem making friends if she wants to, but she does not suffer fools well (nor should she). Allow yourself a little indulgence. We have worked hard to get where we are here in the Gulch. As Ferris Bueller said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't slow down and look around, you might miss it."

Thank you, jbrenner. I feel it is something of an indulgence to me to wallow a bit in opinions that more agree with mine own than is generally the case in real life.

I spoke above to hearten you if it turned out that your daughter did not find a companion group in college - she may have to look further afield to discover kinsmen. But this is possible!

Jan

The Gulch wouldn't do well as an "Association Neighborhood". Then again, it would be on private property and the property owner would have the right to impose any desired restrictions. Which, presumably, would be rational.

Welcome home, Fountainhead24!

Same here. My wife is my best friend and I have great conversations with her but she is the only one. I can identify with your daughter's high school experience. I was and always have been a loner and it wasn't until years later that I realized why.

I am glad to have you here in the Gulch, Jan.

Oops. Sorry, I mixed French and Spanish.

Word choice was never my strong suit. Neighborhood does work in this case. However, how many of you notice that today's neighborhoods are not really friendly any more? I haven't seen parents saying "Be home by sunset," or kids contacting each other to play pickup basketball, football, or baseball since I was a teenager in the 1980s.

My daughter will be glad to have left the sheeple factory behind. Thanks.

Viva la difference.

Not necessarily instead... for some of us it just adds to being well rounded. And sometimes, that community is where you can also find like minded individuals.

I absolutely understand where your daughter is coming from, JB. It's somewhat disheartening, not only that there are so few intellectually stimulating people in the morass of public schools (including the instructors), but that it is expected for you to lower yourself down to their level. At least it will get better once she has left the sheeple factory behind!

Glad to see you here, JB!

Yes....it's a voluntary association. Not "society which must be obeyed". There's a considerable difference.

In my own experience, I found only a few friends in HS and college - everyone else was off being dovey and flowery (guess what era that was!); I made fewer friends in college than I had in HS. It was not until I was in the AF that I joined an odd (not AF) club and actually found 'people who would laugh at my jokes' (and whose jokes I actually found funny). Most of my friends (from that group) are verrrrry liberal, but they are imaginative and intelligent and motivated to do interesting things...and there are a few quiet Randists in the bunch. Up until that time, my immediate family was the only place I could have a conversation.

It is like one of those urban fantasy novels where you find that the world you thought you knew 'was not the only one'. This forum is an example of a 'world within a world'. I suspect that your daughter might have to find her own subset of the world in order to have a circle of friends.

I will point out that a school system in the Gulch would be derivative of a self-selecting minority and even without any overt changes in policy or procedure would already be quite different.

Jan

Agreed! Some things are not meant for prying eyes of moochers. And those who subversively work for them.

J, could we substitute "neighborhood" -- community reminds too much of commune ?
I love your participation and that of this great bunch of friends who make the gulch very special !!! -- j

Those things that any of us would never post on a forum like this are those that should be saved for the Gulch ONLY.

I would gladly rent space in a Made by Man lab and would gladly delegate the 3D printing services so that I can focus on other important projects.