I can't believe that I've lived to see...

Neil Armstrong stepping onto the freaking moon

Martin Luther King, Jr. lead a movement that truely began the era of equality of the races in our divisive culture.

JFK, RFK and MLK, all lost to the insanity of lone gunmen.

The deaths of Elvis, and John Lennon, true giants in their field.

Cell phones.

Cell phones shrink from the size of a middle-school backpack, to the size of a peanut.

Electric Cars.

The Internet.  What kinda link do you use for this one???

Flat screen TVs.  Cable and satellite TV.

E-books that can contain an entire library in the mass of a paperback.

Another televised WAR.  I thought we, as a people, including the republicans, learned something from the Vietnam debacle.

George Carlin's seven words cut down to just one (or is it still two?) no longer allowed on television.

Surrogate birth.

HIV and AIDs.

The Federal Government of the United States failed to rescue it's own citizens from a natural disaster of historic scope.

Graft, fraud and out-right theft of the public treasury in a fashion not seen since the Teapot Dome scandal of the early 20th century.

The Meth plague that is still in full-swing in many cities.  Remember when weed was best known as Reefer Madness and Meth wasn't even anyone's pipe-dream yet? (Pun definitely intended).

Computers.  Laptop computers.

Plastic shoes for grown-ups, even plastic work shoes for grown-ups.

A (in my own opinion) bad B-movie actor elected to both a Governorship and then the Presidency of the US.

What is it that you can't believe you've lived to see?

•  Post yours, please

  asdf

  by Angie in WA State on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 01:43:38 AM PDT

  •  A resurgent democratic party

    Like in the 1960s. Wait, we haven't seen that yet.

    The democratic party went down the drain nationally during the Clinton years. But here in Big Sky Country, Governor Schweitzer and Senator Tester have revitalized the formally moribund democrats.

    Hopefully Obama can do the same on a national stage.

    by Ed in Montana on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 06:03:25 AM PDT

  •  Getting The Pants...

    beat off us by China in the game of "free enterprise."

    by brentmack on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:34:35 AM PDT

•  The fall

  of the American Republic and the Great Experiment of the Enlightenment.

  by Jeffersonian Democrat on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 01:45:30 AM PDT

  •  how did I miss THIS one???

    nice catch

    by Angie in WA State on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 01:48:58 AM PDT

  •  the chance for it all to be turned around

    "yes we can"

    by TAPayne on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 01:55:06 AM PDT

    •  I doubt we will return

      to old, quaint, ideas such as All men [people] are created equal regardless of citizenship or not and endowed by inalienable rights, regardless of citizenship, or reverting back to clear separation of powers.

      We may get Habeas Corpus back, though.

      by Jeffersonian Democrat on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:02:48 AM PDT

      •  Those...

        "quaint" ideas, as you put it, were gradually swept out with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

        by TheKost on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:09:30 AM PDT

        •  I know,

          unfortunately this cannot be hung on the last seven years alone, it's been happening for decades.  Which is why I am doubtful that they will come back in full force.

          by Jeffersonian Democrat on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:11:21 AM PDT

        •  I think this was a

          /snarky reference to the ex-Attorney General's remarks on a note to President Bush, to wit, that the Geneva Conventions were a 'quaint' or old-fashioned idea.

          by Angie in WA State on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:12:12 AM PDT

      •  well with this good start we have a shot at

        , why cant patient gradualism work for the restoration of these things as it has worked to unravel them in the past

        by TAPayne on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:10:05 AM PDT

        •  only because

          I am a pessimist ;-)

          by Jeffersonian Democrat on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:12:09 AM PDT

          •  you know what they say:

            "the optimist invented the airplane, and the pessimist invented the parachute" ;)

            by TAPayne on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:15:20 AM PDT

        •  why not?

          We're heading towards a set of tipping points, any of which can turn America into something best viewed at a safe distance.

          What are we going to do about:

          • peak oil
          • global warming
          • financial meltdown in progress
          • the increasing centralization of power into the executive and its police state implications
          • the effect on the non-Richistani of neoliberalsm / globalism
          • $2T of civil infrastructure that's gradually turning to shit because politicians see no personal benefit in adequate maintenance or replacement?
          • an adequate national health system which is not a back door subsidy gateway to health insurers

          Get all of this more or less right in the next few years and we'll have a chance to rebuild America into a prosperous and democratic nation.

          Get it right a decade from now and America's last remaining important resourcem, the Federal government's ability to borrow will be pissed away in tax cuts for the wealthy, health insurance company subsidies traded for junk insurance for all, and on military misadventures like Iraq.

          by alizard on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:04:33 AM PDT

      •  Those are some rose

        tinted glasses you're looking though to the past. America has never lived up to those ideals. Ever.

        The promise of America is that we keep on trying, working through the injustices and inequalities as we go. We've had some setbacks, but the core of this country is that we believe that it's not enough just to take things as they are, but to strive for that 'More Perfect Union' that we've all heard about.

        Like a great man said, and another has repeated.

        The arc of history bends towards justice.

        by EvilAsh on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:27:28 AM PDT

        •  Rose-tinted glasses

          is a little demeaning.  Merely lots of study of Rousseau, Herder, Voltaire, Locke Jefferson and the like.  Those ideals were materially written in historical documents.

          But also with the territory come the Robespierres and Andrew Jacksons.  There is no denying the big warts, such as the attempt to write slavery out in the Constitution but political expediency required the support of the southern colonies, or the massacres of indigenous populations.

          But there is also no denying that for a time, the US was the best hope and a beacon in a time of degenerating aristocracies, social class stagnation, and bourgeois empires.  Until, of course, the US succumbed to the same forces.

          Never before in human history had so many thinkers and political leaders come together to actually try to change the human condition, and they did succeed to a certain extent, but they couldn't do it all themselves... hence the Great Experiment.

          by Jeffersonian Democrat on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:35:48 AM PDT

          •  No offense intended

            All I meant was that when you stated that we wouldn't return to those ideas you implied that we had ever lived up to them in the first place.  

            Church and state has been a battle since the beginning, and we've never really gotten the hang of all that 'all men(people) are created equal' stuff.

            In many ways, this country has made more social progress that we could have ever imagined. In others, we're falling short. But we're moving in the right direction.

            by EvilAsh on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:43:15 AM PDT

            •  yea, I guess my point was

              that I fear that we may have given up even trying to live up to them, even if the track record wasn't the greatest, we were at least trying.

              Now, if you are not a citizen and even if you are it is sketchy, coming through a US airport you have no rights or liberties.  Perhaps not obvious on the domestic front (Obama being quite a stunning example) but in other ways I think we are actually headed backwards.  As somebody else said on this thread, we'll see if we can put that genie back into the bottle.

              by Jeffersonian Democrat on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:48:08 AM PDT

              •  But that, too

                has been going on forever. There has always been a backlash against immigrants and foreigners, often much worse than now. I agree it's disheartening to see that we haven't come as far as I had thought, but sanity has always reasserted itself.
                Civil rights arrests, Kent State, The red scare, WW2 internment camps, WW1 anti-German sentiment, forced 're-education' of American Indians, the backlash against Russian immigrants, Irish immigrants, Vietnamese immigrants, Chinese immigrants. Hell, just about every sizable immigrant group since the inception of this country has been greeted with violent opposition and institutionalized bigotry.

                by EvilAsh on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:59:41 AM PDT

•  A woman and a black man

  duking it out to become the Democratic party nominee for President.

  by penguins4peace on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 01:50:49 AM PDT

  •  I was trying to avoid

    the candidate diaries, but you know, I should have put this one in anyhow.  Kudos.

    by Angie in WA State on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 01:54:28 AM PDT

  •  Someday, when we're all calmed down,

    we'll be celebrating this more here than we are now.

    But it will, certainly, be in all the United States history texts
    written after this year.

    by begone on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 01:55:03 AM PDT

    •  Yup.

      So students should start reading about it in, oh, 2073 with how often they update textbooks.

      by EvilAsh on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:28:45 AM PDT

    •  The candidates are already...

      Bill Clinton has put that into words several times.

      And the fact that the fact sneaks up on you is the most wonderful part. When they say, "Grandpa, what was it like," you probably won't remember that the big issues in the campaign were the war, Kyl-Lieberman, what "universal" means in "universal healthcare" and who took money from whom.

      by PBCliberal on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:46:01 AM PDT

      •  If America gets things wrong in the

        next election, you won't be able to answer questions like those from kids safely unless you and they are in some country other than America.

        by alizard on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:06:57 AM PDT

•  A worse President

  than Ronald Reagan.  I naively thought I wouldn't see one in my lifetime.

  by bythesea on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 01:54:26 AM PDT

•  personal navigation

  units that can talk you to any location and they fit in th palm of your hand.

  A single bomb that can wipe out an entire modern metropolitan city.

  plastic cards you swipe instead of money

  a 2 way satellite system for remote locations that can connect you to the internet at broadband speeds for under $300

  a beautiful son that came from me ( ok procreation has been a round a long time but it's still a miracle for it to have happened to me and my wife)

  by bajadudes on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:05:57 AM PDT

•  Total Information Awareness

  and the enactment of the Big Brother state.  I'm not sure the genie will go back in the bottle again.

  by Youffraita on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:08:05 AM PDT

•  The return of Negroponte and Abrams

  to government disservice.

  by Over the Edge on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:08:28 AM PDT

•  I can't believe I've lived to see...

  Humanity transform into the utter depravity of Corporate Globalism.

  A man of color and a woman vying for the highest office in the US AND be the most likely to win the final election.

  The US devolve into Rome part II.

  by TheKost on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:18:09 AM PDT

•  Not myself

  for mine would be similar to yours, but several people I've known including one family member:

  The Wright brothers early flights, and the Moon landings.

  The rise and fall of the Soviet Union.

  Japan becoming a world power as England faded.

  The first sedans, the decay of rail.

  The US population go from 1/3 urban to 3/4 urban.

  The real development of medical drugs, with antibiotics, psycho-pharmacology, and other classes of drugs.

  The origins of broadcast radio through instant communications around the world, and image sent from near other planets.

  Voting rights for women, then the Civil Rights era, and the growing acceptance of homosexuals.

  The discovery of the last of the stable natural chemical elements, and the first of the manmade ones.

  The first adding machines with subtotals and subtraction, to laptop computers.  The first combined adding machines-typewriters were sold in the early 1920s, as well as the early 20 pound portables.  Notebook style computers came out in 1989.

  The changes in social life that the automobile and the move to city housing caused. Courtship went from visits to the girl's home and sitting on the porch, to picking her up in the the boy's automobile and zipping away from parental eyes.  

  by wondering if on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:19:26 AM PDT

•  'Virtual' real estate

  Earning real money selling 'virtual' property (Second Life)

  by roberta g on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:22:48 AM PDT

•  Green glowing cats.

  by EvilAsh on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:31:33 AM PDT

•  "1984" brought to life here in the USA.

  by irate on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 02:49:27 AM PDT

•  The worst preznit in US histroy.

  The Dishonorable George Dumbya Bush.

  by manwithnoname on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:18:04 AM PDT

•  i can't believe I have lived to see

  a government snooping in my (e)mail,phonecalls and medical records, for all I know, and people not filling the streets and banging on their representatives' office doors, livid with rage, in protest.

  I can't believe I have had my patriotism questioned in the last 8 years just like I did during Vietnam.

  I can't believe we have ANY buildings named after Ronald Reagan.

  I can't believe that Dick Cheney exists in a free society.

  And, honestly, I can't believe I am still living in this country and raising a child here.

  by Chun Yang on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:28:46 AM PDT

  •  Wow, I thought I was the only one

    with this same list.  

    To be honest, I read an awful lot of science fiction, and I've woken up more than once, and for just a moment I have an entire storyline run through my head, imagining today without there ever having been a GwB administration, in my story, Al Gore was sworn in on a cold morning in January of 2001.

    Then the moment passes.

    Eventually, in less than a year now, the moment will have passed for all time.  Small comfort, I know, but that day marks the day our country can start bringing our men and women in uniform home from foreign entanglements.  For this, I will be grateful.

    by Angie in WA State on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 07:32:55 PM PDT

    •  if my list is Your list

      You have my warmest feelings of compassion, my friend. I know it will pass - my mail was read under Cointelpro when I was an innocent high school kid - but it the fact that these transgressions have returned, the amnesia, the insults to my person - it just speaks so poorly of our country.

      by Chun Yang on Sat Feb 16, 2008 at 06:49:17 AM PDT

•  Time Passages....

  Cable Tv. When I was a kid, there were three channels, and at least 2 of them signed off (actually went off the air with the National Anthem and all at midnight) and did not start up again until 6 am for the morning news. Same thing with radio stations. A lot of them signed off at midnight and did not restart again until 6am. Now tv and radio never sleep. There are hundreds of satellite and cable stations all 24 hours, radio is also 24 hours. The Media never sleeps, and I don't get that much myself-I'm listening to cable news.

  The internet. I first got my own personal access to the net back in 1998, and I marvel at how I must have filled my time back then. I used to crochet and read incessantly beforehand, trying to fill idle time. Now I wonder how I didn't get so bored. I also marvel at the fact that I can go to school online without having to trudge through crappy weather, do all my banking without worrying about office hours, buy books at a whim. A person on another board I post on sent me books that she was giving away-great books too, and all without us ever physically meeting. When I first went to college, if I wanted something printed or copies, it was a trip to the campus Computer Lab or Kinko's. Now I'm looking at my outdated printer (Maybe I'll get a new one with my tax refund) and all I have to do is click to get copies or prints.

  Smaller and better appliances. The microwave was a big box, now I have something the size of my monitor. Mini coffee pots. Mini blender. Shoebox size toaster oven. A tv that fits into the palm of my hand. Radios that go into a purse. My mp3 player that's thumb size.

  Greater social flexibility.Gay people have a march and a day and few people get upset. Integrated neighborhoods. I watch C-Span, and its not unusual to see women legislators, think tank people, advocates. We are actually debating whether or not a Mormon should or could be Presidential timber, along with questions about Muslims. Once they wouldn't have even been encouraged to try on the one hand, and the rumor would kick him out on the other.

  by CarolDuhart on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:32:35 AM PDT

•  I'm 49 years old and when I was in high school

  Crystal Meth was all over the place. I think it's a myth that it just "sprung up" relatively recently.

  I remember trying it - once. I was, I think, 14 and snorted a little at a fiddler's convention in NC. I didn't go to sleep or eat anything for 3 days and recall having no desire to repeat that performance.

  Ironically methamphetamine can still be prescribed by a physician. It's still used to treat narcolepsy and ADHD in children - brand name, Desoxyn.

  Again, ironically, this means our very own FDA has signed off on it as being "safe and effective".

  BTW, Cocaine can also be prescribed by a physician. It's most often used - again, ironically - as an anesthetic in deviated septum operations. That means that once again, the FDA signed off on it as being "safe and effective" in certain circumstances.

  It's still hard for me to grasp that we walked on the f***ing moon.

  by Snud on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 04:31:30 AM PDT

  •  focalin, ritalin too

    but that is okay, you can continue to blind yourself to the suckyness that is living with ADHD.  Or is it just a made up thing to sell drugs and I didn't seek treatment for it until I was 27?

    I'll add one to the pile than...

    The fact that we are finally seeing mental illness is real.  We have a long way to go towards mainstream acceptance, but we are getting there.

    by spookthesunset on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:26:50 PM PDT

•  Vending machines that sell...

  used (and unwashed) panties.

  ...eeewwww.

  by Clive all hat no horse Rodeo on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 04:58:12 AM PDT

•  I got detention for predicting hand calculators

  A grade school math teacher gave me detention and said I read too many comic books.

  I had said that someday, we would all have little computers that did math and fit in our pockets.

  The "Mother Box" of Jack Kirby's New Gods comic book in the early seventies, exists now.  We call it an IPhone.

  My dad introduced me to Chuck Yeager, years before there was a space program.  It's cool to see it unfold.

  by MadCityRag on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 05:19:43 AM PDT

  •  TransFlash...

    At 12, I wished for a 4-function desk calculator costing $400.00;

    At 31, amazed to get a 150 Mbyte ESDI drive for $600 attached to a 33 MHz 80486 with the extra-large 8 Mbyte memory;

    Yesterday, I bought a midrange Gateway computer: for $750, we have a 4-processor AMD64 Phenom CPU (4 2.2 GHz processors), 3 Gbytes RAM, and 500 Gbyte disk, 10/100 Ethernet, dual DVI 3D accelerated graphics. This is not a fancy machine, it was merely a nice balance of performance and cost. I bought it at our local Micro Center.

    Compare that to the IBM 370/168 of 1977:

    8 MHz processor (1000:1)
    2 Mbytes memory (3000:1)
    500 Mbytes disk (1000:1)
    $4,000,000.00 (0.0001875:1)
    1 floor of a midsize building (0.00001:1)
    >50 kilowatts, guessing here (.0025:1)
    No internet

    That IBM 370 has about 1 percent of the power of my Palm Pilot (400 MHz, 64 Mbyte RAM, 128 Mbyte flash, 1 Gbyte SDcard)

    We are running the quad 64-bit as a Linux/Postgres vehicle tracking and management server. We run only open source infrastructure software from bottom to top.

    One of my contract projects is a flight director for an autonomous UAV (4 foot wingspan), so today the "computer is flying an airplane", and that's no big deal. We are totally in SciFi territory here.

    I've been reading science fiction for 42 years, and even in my wildest flights of youthful imagination, I didn't dream of such power.

    And yet we're still arguing about whether and how to fund education?

    by lenski on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 06:20:23 AM PDT

  •  I never have understood why NASA

    and the Administrations since Kennedy, haven't been advertising the heck out of NASA's many contributions.

    Medical materials and equipment, medicines.

    Modern alloy materials of various base elements (both metal and polymorphic).

    There is literally a list longer than your arm of the things or services created by way of designing something for use by NASA or one of it's vehicles.  These things are then converted to public use, improving the lives of average American's in ways they are most generally, completely unaware of.

    Besides, movies like Armageddon and Serenity are visually amazing, and where are you going to get those kinds of views other than, say, the orbit of the Moon or a moviescreen?

    by Angie in WA State on Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 07:43:08 PM PDT