[WI wide body]

My take:

First of all, I must have missed out on all that white "benefit" that many others might have gotten since I went to work in a factory when I was 17 and nobody (including my family) ever gave me anything. And I do mean nothing! I would guess that few here could honestly say that.

Yes, I ended up with a great life that allowed me to travel the world and retire at 55 while always playing around with Porsches and racing bikes. Much of it was because of good luck and great timing per the machinery advancements at my company but I also worked my ass off while raising 6 kids. So I do not buy into the crap that I owe anybody anything because I made it happen.

I actually would kid around and tell some of the black guys that worked for me at the plant in VA that I could not figure out why I was their boss since they had family that went back 5 or 6 (or more) generations in the USA while I was a second generation American! What's wrong with that picture I would ask them? Some of the brighter ones would play the race card card but they knew what I meant.

Also, what Byron said about the Irish is fact. My wife's grandfather came from Ireland and he had a sign that he said he got when he passed thru NY. It was a help wanted sign and the top part said something about "No Thieves" and at the bottom it said "IRISH NEED NOT APPLY" in bigger print. I wanted that sign but her damn cousin got it.

As for how resourceful eveyone here seems to be, it appears to me that most of the really successful guys today are the exact opposite of what I'm reading here. Granted, most of the Pelican clientele might be a tad different, but most of the guys that I have met who drive new Porsches and are really successful are sure as hell NOT what I am reading here.

Many if not most of the really wealthy and successful guys of today could not even have survived 100 years ago much less ended up rich. It seems today that the fuking goobers who can't really do anything are the most successful. I have a very large extended family and some of the most successful often seem to be the least clever and able of the bunch.

Look at today's high powered CEO's, bean counters, lawyers, paper pushers, lobbyists, hedge fund managers, politicians, etc etc. Most of them have about as much knowhow and ability as a baby bear with boxing gloves. Yes, they have learned some skill or procedure that allows them to job the system as it has evolved today. But they probably could not take care of their own home or car or feed their family or provide the true necessities of life if their lives actually depended on it. They often actually seem to believe that buying iPods and gadgets and the neat colored phones that life now seems to require is akin to doing something.

Maybe I'm just a tad bitter but it sure seems to me that a whole bunch of white dip*****s have been hugely successful while basically not knowing their ass from a hole in the ground.