I think a lot of people look at you and think "how is the old mind influenced, and by what?"

Ah Ryan, I do not know your age, but I am 59, which makes me old I guess in your eyes.

To answer your question, most of us "old" folks would say that our minds have been influenced by the experiences over our lifetime. The more experiences the more wisdom gained. Some may say I have none or very little wisdom, that is their right.
The young without those life experiences generally are influenced by those immediately around them, parents and other family members. That is not necessarily a bad or good thing.

Hopefully, you will live a long life and have many experiences, some will be good and some will be life lessons.

America's biggest enemy is debt. Ron Paul is the only candidate for a fiscally responsible government and to end our fiat currency and return to a responsible currency.
Mike A.

Now James. I do have debt, albeit much less than I used to have. Let me try to answer your questions as they come up. I am looking good, thank you ;-))
I did not say it is okay for the government to have massive debt. When Clinton left office, the budget was balanced (still had debt) and there was absolutely no need to go to war in Iraq and enact huge tax cuts. It was a stupid thing to do and we have been paying for that mistake and will continue to pay for that mistake for a very long time. Bush had a good thing handed to him and chose to reward his wealthy friends. I didn't need the tax cut, but took it like everyone else.
One can be a fiscal conservative, support business, work hard without being a greedy b**stard. I have earned what I have and the difference between me and the wealthy part of the Republican party is I know what it is like to have to roll pennies for bread, Romney doesn't.
Very rich people don't keep poor people down, very rich people just want to get richer and most of them don't really care about poor people. As I have said on other posts on the Patch, poor people and lazy people have their scams to cheat any way they can. However, so do the very rich. Their crooks come armed with money and are wearing suits. They muck up the tax code while the rest of us (yes me) pay higher rates of taxes than they do.
Fixing the budget is a serious problem, when you spend $3 for every $2 you take in, the cuts & tax increases necessary will be huge.

Who is Dad?