Dr_Merkwurdigliebe

I read recently that the German economy has taken a ~1 trillion dollar hit each decade since reunification because of the burden of bringing the former GDR up to speed.

Keep in mind, of course, that the GDR was the most economically advanced country in the Soviet sphere and by comparison, North Korea is basically Gilligan's Island, but with more death camps.

As much as I'd like to have someone to blame, I don't think anyone created this because they thought it was a good rule. They were afraid of being sued, incarcerated, fired, etc. and made a stupid rule that would cover their asses. It only became a "good" rule after everyone had been lobotomized.

Then people wonder why you get kids that murder animals, pets, other friends and seem to hold no empathy at all for the suffering they caused. It's because when they were suffering they were ignored or had someone 'walk away from them' and never gave them an encouraging hug or a shoulder to cry on.

You just don't get it, do you. You people don't understand at all. Video games and violent television and the internet make children violent. New things are bad! Your rationale involves a complex answer to an even more difficult and complex problem. Do you know how hard I work to try to be politically correct and always accept the simplest, most comfortable, least reality changing answer to the 'tough questions'? You people make me sick. I can't believe people would ever try to fix things by acting like pedophiles and showing emotion towards children. I showed my children nothing but apathy and anger and look how they turned out: all four in jail, do you know why? Because their mother let them have a Facebook and play Wii Sports while I wasn't home. At least I tried!

/ridiculous rant

kids being suspended for drawing guns and all the other absurd reasons and feel nothing but anger for what is happening to them.

I hope that the next person to try to shoot up a school leaves a note citing at least twelve asinine rules as the reasons for his depression and mania.

I was suspended in sixth grade for hugging my best friend in class after he was given detention for drawing a Kentucky Rifle on a project about Revolutionary War soldiers. I was sad for days and went to the guidance counselor crying because I was a good kid and this didn't make sense to me. She thought I was shooting heroine, and they expelled me from school. That is why I want to kill everyone here, to get back at them.

AT Class of 2012 here:

There are lots of ways to hike the Appalachian Trail. There are purists who carry their packs every mile. There are blue blazers who take side trails to shave miles, yellow blazers who hitch rides around portions of the Trail they want to skip, slack packers who get their gear shlepped to the next town so they don't have to carry it, and many other kinds of hikers.

Everyone hikes their own hike, and everyone has their own standard for how to "judge" another's hike (although I hate using that word to describe someone else's journey). There isn't one standard.

In general, though, most of the thru-hikers I know recognize and respect the sheer physical feat of speed-hiking the AT, even unsupported and respect the accomplishment. Above all, the important thing is that someone does the miles, not how much they have on their back while they do it.