Sectorgame

You should be able to enter a presidential election and AT LEAST have a shot at it for around $100,000. This is getting way, WAY out of hand.

That's a main reason why third-party canidates don't hold many positions in the goverment.

*refering to before*
By no means is the US perfect. It may have things, people, places that other countries don't have. And other countries have things, places, people that the US doesn't have.

liberator wrote:*agrees with Flipside*

You should run for political office, Flip, you are well spoken and don't mince words with political trash.

What I find disheartening is the number of politicians who are willing to bow to the UN like it is a government in waiting.

BTW, I was watching CSPAN this morning and they had a british debate on whether Pres. Bush should be re-elected with a Mr. Trimble who enunciated very clearly the situation in the world without any spin toward the left or right. I found it interesting.

Trimble? An Irish dude? Glasses? Bugger me. Trimble is one of the big players in the Northern Ireland situation (He's the head of the Ulster Unionist Party, one of the two main pro-British parties along with the DUP or Democratic Unionist Party). Haven't heard much from him for a while. A clever guy. While I don't agree with everything he has to say, he's got a very important role in the peace process, and I have a lot of respect for him (as far as you can repsect a politician).

As for America, here's something I posted on peerweb.org that should outline my position quite well. It's a bit, erm, vitriolic perhaps, but I was having a bad day....

"Re: Why do people from UK and Canada hate USA?
Right, where to start? Time to open up a can of whoop-ass worms. Ahem...

I cannot stand what America has come to be and symbolise. The frankly disgusting conduct of the USA since the end of the Second World War has resulted in the deaths of millions, and impoverished countless millions more. The quiet rise to power of the multi-nationals has rendered the so-called "greatest democracy on Earth" and the "beacon of freedom" nothing more than an elitist polyarchy, ruled by a handful of obscenely rich people and families (the Bushes being one of them). These people have no aims other than to ensure the total dominance of the USA over the whole world, militarily, culturally, and economically, in order to fill their already vast pockets with even more money (look at South America for some excellent examples of this). This is the "Imperial Grand Strategy", a part of US policy since the 1940s, and actually announced to the world by the Bush administration in 2002. Quite where they got the balls from to do this, I'm not sure (perhaps because they thought the whole "war on terror" deception gave them justification), but at least it's now out in the open - though most people still don't know about it (you can thank the corporate-owned media for glossing over it so well).

The USA spends well over half a trillion dollars on it's military every year. To put that in perspective, this figure is approaching the value of the entire budget of the Great Britain (and many other European countries), and is more than the rest of the worlds' military spending combined. Most of this money is spent on maintaining a vast offensive capability - the US Marine Corps (one of four US military entities, and by no means the largest) is the same size as the entire British Army (the biggest of the UK's armed forces, with approximately 100, 000 troops and support staff IIRC). The US is also actively seeking new types of Mass Destdructive and Mass Casualty Weapons - a new generation of low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons is currently in development. Congress approved a budget of billions of dollars to go towards this project last year, and there will be continued funding for several years. These weapons are the smallest nuclear weapons ever created, with a yield of only a few kilotonnes. This makes them the most "useable" nuclear weapons - their deployment would not necessarily lead to retaliation from another nuclear power (though I suspect that any such conflict would rapidly escalate, making a strategic exchange a strong possibility) - and if any country is known for it's use of immensely powerful weapons, it is the USA. Do some research on "fuel-air bombs", and see the kind of mess they make. Then look at the fact that the US used these weapons on the Taliban in the Afghan mountains.

American people are no more stupid than the rest of the world, believe it or not - the fact that such large numbers of them blindly believe anything they are fed by the media is that the American education system is one of the worst in the developed world. Many schools still teach from textbooks that demonize the Soviet Empire, and name the "Red Threat" as the greatest threat to freedom etc etc etc (i.e. they're over 20 years old). Children are made to recite the "Pledge of Alliegance" to the stars and stripes, in what is (to my mind at least) practically an act of worship. They pray to their flag!! All this while being taught so badly about everything from basic skills (reading, writing, basic maths) to world events and geography that some can't even find their own country on a map! A country that covers half a continent! This is in part due to the fact that US spending on education is one of the lowest in the modern world. The same can be said for healthcare system (what healthcare system?).

Another point: The US refuses to sign up to vital international treaties on very important issues - the World Criminal Court, the Kyoto Treaty on climate change, and treaties banning chemical and biological weapons (!!!!!!!). This means that they can basically say "f### off, we'll shaft/economically cripple/invade/bomb/quietly annex whoever we want, poison the planet, and develop things that'll wipe us all out in an instant, and you can't do a damn thing about it!" to the rest of the world.

THIS is why people hate America. Not because of it's so-called "freedom" (actually not a lot of freedom, with the PATRIOT Act in place), not because everyone is so miraculously wealthy (actually, the rich-poor divide is massive, and grows every day), but because the people in control are basically evil, selfish bastards who will do anything to get rich quick."

Hope that helps!

pyro-manic:
That is so true!!!

~jdjtcagle

No, that's about as false as you can get. I'm not going to be bothered to respond to it, but I will say this: way to believe your typical American stereotypes without knowing anything about the real America.

I don;t see any stereotypes - mostly it's facts and a few interpretations (ie. worshiping the flag). Though if you'd be willing to point them out, I'm sure you'd be able to show me the light.

First of all, we don't worship the flag. It does have great meaning behind it though. At least as much as the Australian flag means to you.

The reason that American schools are veiwed as poor is because we've got too many politicians who like to keep the schools in play as a campaign issue and too many social groups who veiw them as places to experiment with their theories on how society should be. We finally have a federal administration who's trying to change that.

True. Regardless of political affiliations, there are some real problems there. Overcrowding is one that's getting worse in a lot of places, and whatever the media says, I know it's a problem in my home area. I've seen it.

Well, just for starters, I've never used a history book over 5 years old; the ones talking about the Soviet Union would be found in *maybe* the poorest of school districts, but not anywhere else. (Besides, since most history classes don't have enough time to get up to the present day, it doesn't really matter much, does it? ) Also, contrary to popular belief, not every American is completely ignorant of foreign geography; some of us have parents who made sure that we got a good education. I'll have to continue later...

Bear in mind this thread is about 'Global Opinion'. Not all those opinions will be well informed or correct, but that doesn't change the fact they are present.
Ignorance is a 2-way mirror, both sides have to learn to meet in the middle.

About the patriot act... People make a huge deal of this. Quite frankly, the patriot act has absolutely no impact on the life of the average American person. The government isn't keeping tabs on each individual person any more than they already are. The gross neglect and ignorance in schools is a major problem, but it is being largely remedied by Bush's much maligned No Child Left Behind act. Also, the voucher system put in place by (guess who? Bush!) allows parents to pick the school they want their kids in, and receive tax money to help pay for the education there, instead of forcing parents to pay for the education of their kid individually and everyone else's too through the tax system. The education in America is still screwed up--but hey, we're still in the top 10 nations technologically.

Yes, the US has the most advanced and deadly military in the world. Does that mean we're going to go around bombing the world? I don't think so. In case you haven't noticed, the US hasn't exactly been attacked by any allies of these 2 nations (unless you count 9/11, in which case we can simply say "they started it!").

Stryker wrote:The gross neglect and ignorance in schools is a major problem, but it is being largely remedied by Bush's much maligned No Child Left Behind act.

It would be, if Bush would actually put the funding into it that he said he would. Otherwise I have little problem with NCLB.

Also, the voucher system put in place by (guess who? Bush!) allows parents to pick the school they want their kids in, and receive tax money to help pay for the education there, instead of forcing parents to pay for the education of their kid individually and everyone else's too through the tax system.

Yeah, and it also takes money away from schools that are already failing, exascerbating the rich-poor divide since poor kids (by and large) cannot afford private schools, even with voucher help.

Hell, the only reason I could go to a private school through 9th grade was because of a scholarship and a massive loan, and I'm middle class.

The thing about the tax system -- about liberalism in general -- is the belief that everyone should support everyone else in the society, not just each looking after just their own. (Tho of course, we should look to our own first, but if you have money to spare and others don't, it's your responsibility to try to help 'em.)

Even from a religious standpoint, "thou are thy brother's keeper" and "love thy neighbor".

Heh, on many levels, religion is why I'm such a leftie. Kinda the opposite of what you'd expect, eh?