You have to realize that if you criticize the gov't you need to be specific or nothing changes... using words like poserish isn't going to help anything change. Buy yourself an English copy of "Revolt of the Masses" by Jose Ortega y Gasset and read a bit of Marx, Rousseau and Chomsky. Then you can change the way things work.
but camelot is a silly place, too...America should fess up and stop being ridiculous.
>>"Why do you stupid, filthy Americans do this really negative thing?" like the US is the cesspool of the world and it's the fault of every American citizen.
No, just the half that don't bother to vote. So you think it is unfair for us to blame the US for the choices your leaders make?
Tell that to the next Afghani you meet. Better yet try to do something about it.
Your politicians are very aware that if they keep you happy at home, you don't care what happens in the rest of the world ie Kyoto, Steel tariffs, farm subsidies, oil drilling in Alaskan wilderness ect.
"Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars......the rest I squandered."
George Best
"If you are going through hell....keep going."
Winston Churchill
I can think of two reasons:Originally posted by Shiro
I was wondering, why do you American spend so much money on election campaigns?
1) On our annual income tax form, an option exists to contribute (I believe it's) three dollars to an election fund. The three dollars is not taken from your refund, it simply earmarks 3 bucks of your taxes for that specific purpose. I suspect many people simply shrug and think "why not?".
2) Most contributions come from corporations who hope to win influence with the candidate. In fact, it is common for a company to donate large sums of money to both of the major candidates, just in case.
Jason Deckard
Unless you live in America, then you should stop complaining. I don't live in the UK, so I don't complain about your continent wide problems with foot and mouth disease and mad cow and how you have to walk across a mat of antiseptic everytime you enter a US airport (I make jokes about it though, because I find it funny that our so called "American Democracy" has safer meat.)Originally posted by Aran
The American Democracy: what a load of crap.
It's more like a bunch of popular wealthy people with heart problems (i.e. Chaney) who gather and talk about nothing while no one cares (proportional to the population) and nothing happens. At this point America is a real poserish democracy. We've lost ourselves in beaurocracy and hipocrasy.
America should fess up and stop being ridiculous.
Besides, don't forget who saved who's ass in WWII.
wellOriginally posted by Scourfish
Unless you live in America, then you should stop complaining. I don't live in the UK, so I don't complain about your continent wide problems with foot and mouth disease and mad cow and how you have to walk across a mat of antiseptic everytime you enter a US airport (I make jokes about it though, because I find it funny that our so called "American Democracy" has safer meat.)
Besides, don't forget who saved who's ass in WWII.
1) aran is American i believe, critisising his own country, just like i like to critisise mine
2) you are not well informed about foot and mouth, the safety of US and Argentinian meat is debatable, there are worse things called "prions".actually we blew it all up out of proportion(its harmless to humans) and shot ourselves in the foot (and mouth), some countries are not so honest and open.
3) the WWII thing is a joke, so you saved the UK eh ?? interesting, we could have done with some help fighting Hitler in September 1940 at the height of the Battle of Britain, but we managed to win. ever hear of it ??
in December 1941 when you finally decided to join in, we were actually on the offensive, bombing the crap out of Germany, and the Russians were winning the Battle of Stalingrad. these two battles largely decided WWII.
if anyone deserves credit for winning WWII (and i believe it was very much a combined effort) then it is the Russians, who bled the Wehmacht dry on the Eastern Front, allowing the US and UK to open a second front and finish them off.
so there
any well informed german will tell you that was the case.
Steve
>So you think it is unfair for us to blame the US for the choices
>your leaders make?
We, everybody in a country with democracy, choose our leaders. But that doesn't mean we, the voters, have many impact on the choices of our choosen leaders, especially in high level (world level) politics. In fact, this impact is just very little. So it is unfair to blame a nation for the choices their leaders make.
But it is true that if we disagree with a decision of our leaders, we should tell it them loud and clearly. I know that often this also has just little impact, but it shows to the rest of the world that you don't agree with the decision of your leader.
>Besides, don't forget who saved who's ass in WWII.
A damn lot of people helped freeing Europe from the nazi's. The Canedians, the Russians, the British, the American and many more.
Well, if the theme of this thread is now "who does the most bad things", some other ones
- in some states in the USA it is legal to kill people.
- you American treat the original locals of your continent as inferior people (the indians) and put them in reservates.
But after all, the purpose of this thread was to discuss why American spend so much money on elections and NOT: who (American or not American) is better.
> you American treat the original locals of your continent as inferior people (the indians) and put them in reservates.
Wow, you really have no idea what you're talking about, do you? Nobody forces Native Americans to live on reservations. Nobody.
> But after all, the purpose of this thread was to discuss why American spend so much money on elections and NOT: who (American or not American) is better.
You had to expect it would end up there eventually.
-Govtcheez
[email protected]
>Wow, you really have no idea what you're talking about, do
>you? Nobody forces Native Americans to live on reservations.
>Nobody.
Just flaming.
>You had to expect it would end up there eventually.
Yep, I knew that. Threads about a country usually end up like this, too bad. Seems many people haven't learned what results nationalism can have..... (1940-1945, Yugoslavia, the Basks etc.)
Just for clarification, it is legal to kill another person in every state, under the following conditions:Originally posted by Shiro
- in some states in the USA it is legal to kill people.
[list=1][*]To defend yourself from immediate serious bodily injury or death.[*]To protect another person from immediate seriously bodily injury or death.[/list=1] There are, of course, other provisions for members of the military protecting certain national security interests (such as nukes), as well as state appointed executioners carrying out death warrants.
Jason Deckard
> Just flaming.
It certainly was not. You made a totally unsubstaniated claim.
-Govtcheez
[email protected]
well ive noticed that all the threads ive been looking at have descended into American/anti-american arguing.
i certainly am not anti-american, if anyones got that impression i apologise.
i hate this comment though, it always goes through me -
"besides, don't forget who saved who's ass in WWII"
its as daft as a lot of British who, believe it or not think WE won the war!!, and love to tease Americans with the "well you joined in eventually" argument. ive just done it above actually.
i think WWII was so momentous a thing, its worthy of discussion.
i'm gonna start a new thread to that effect. ive been to Russia andthe Russians think they won it too !! i myself have more sympathy with their case. certainly Hitler would not have beaten them, or the UK either. without the Americans it may have been a stalemate.
Steve
I'm not even bothering to read this whole thing because i honestly don't care... but this caught my eye...
>>Well, I'm just interested why you American do things that we don't.
OHHH... we're sorry!! I forgot we're still under British rule and we have to do things exactly like you! WTF????? Elections are a damn big deal here and we'll do them how we damn well please. Thank you.
So in America it is legal to kill people and America is still complaining about human rights in other countries?
>well ive noticed that all the threads ive been looking at have
>descended into American/anti-american arguing.
Yep, noticed that too. Also noted that in many of those threads it ended up in America and the rest of the world.
>i think WWII was so momentous a thing, its worthy of
>discussion.
Yes it sure is.
>i'm gonna start a new thread to that effect. ive been to Russia
>andthe Russians think they won it too !!
All the big countries think they've won. I live near the German border and there are still Germans who say the've never lost the war.
To Govtcheez: you need to read more between the lines.
>OHHH... we're sorry!! I forgot we're still under British rule and
>we have to do things exactly like you! WTF????? Elections are a
>damn big deal here and we'll do them how we damn well
>please. Thank you.
Hmmm. It seems that some people really have problems with reading.
