Posted By: geoff  on Thursday, August 14, 2008

Well, that's - uhm - your view of globalisation, this "Pax Americana" you never bothered asking anyone else about. For a while we kind of were hoping there might be something called a "Peace dividend," but then you decided you had to have more wars so the arms industries could keep busy & make massive profits. Then that part of globalisation exemplified by companies like Walmart made a big dent in pockets: people can't afford to buy much if they're just making minimum wage & worried they're going to be outsourced.

And again (a lot of people seem to get this wrong): why is Russia bombing Georgian cities? Seems like Georgia baited the bear for reasons still difficult to fathom. But if you want to be proud of having kangaroo courts trying somebody's chauffeur at some not-so secret prison camp, well... that's your right, I guess. Most people would be ashamed of such a thing, but... different strokes for different folks.

So why hasn't Bush done anything about Darfur? A lot of people have been protesting; like those who previously protested against the war in Iraq, they don't seem to make it to the news, somehow.

And one major problem with your argument: a lot of people seem to view America as being a rogue state right now; Bush seems to beat out bin Laden as the most dangerous, biggest threat to peace, etc.

So maybe if you stopped being so hypocritical (subsidising American farmers, for example, and their rice exports, but forbidding any recipients of IMF aid from doing so, thereby putting, say, African rice farmers out of business because American imports are cheaper), then maybe we might get somewhere. And maybe if the deck weren't stacked to benefit the strong (Walmart, Exxon, Northrop-Grumman, etc.).

But then, you probably wouldn't see it that way, right?

Posted By: Eric  on Friday, August 15, 2008

Geoff,

Do you hate America that much!  America is not perfect but there is no other country I would even begin to think about living.  Other countries are happy when we step in and help.  Happen to remember when the tsunami hit a couple of years ago?  Who was the first there?  A US aircraft carrier with help and supplies.  It wasn't Iran, China, Russia, bin Laden or anybody else.  The world expects us to help and if we don't (as in Darfur) people like you get made.  How about the rest of the UN step up and do something for a change.  (Move the UN out of New York to the Darfur and see how many diplomats really want to be part of the UN.  Why do we have the immigration problem?  Don't see many people trying to get into Russia, Iran, Syria, etc.  You seem to hate everything about America that made America great. (Judea-Christian ethics, capitalism, etc)  Go live in the middle East if the US is that bad.  Good night.

Posted By: geoff  on Friday, August 15, 2008

Eric: I lived in the US; I much prefer Europe, thank you (where there is quite a large immigration problem, by the way: lots of African boat people going to Italy and Spain). I also lived in the Middle East.

And it's always interesting to see how often "America: love it or leave it" is the response when anyone actually uses their right to free speech to express their opinion.

Capitalism almost ruined American, & all those "robber barons" had to be reined in by people like Teddy Roosevelt. And I don't know if you were asleep in your civics class, but America was not built on "Judeo-Christian ethics." Your law is based partially on British precedence and Roman jurisprudence (or was there something there about "an eye for an eye" or "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" somewhere in your law books that I somehow failed to notice?). The good liberals who wrote your Declaration of Independence and Constitution were deists, strongly influenced by French Enlightenment thinking. They wanted very much to avoid the kind of religious wars that had devastated Europe and the Middle East (pogroms against the Jews, crusades against Islam) for centuries.

And if you didn't know that, you should at least be embarassed to hear it from a Canadian.

Posted By: John Handforth  on Friday, August 15, 2008

From "Religion and the Congress of the Confederation, 1774-89"

The first national government of the United States, was convinced that the "public prosperity" of a society depended on the vitality of its religion. Nothing less than a "spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens," Congress declared to the American people, would "make us a holy, that so we may be a happy people."

Geoff, I was trying to find an article that I read a couple of months ago, but had no success.  It stated that 53 of the 56 signatories were acknowledged christians with the other three being "good and honest men."

Sadly, no Jews, apparently, were even invited to the convention.  Neither were there any Muslims or representatives of any other faith.

Yes, they believed in God, our Deity, but to allow freedom of worship, they did not require or enforce worship of any specific religion or form of worship.  That alone, makes it an enlightened document far ahead of its time.

There was a Peter Sellers movie made a little over 50 years ago (I saw it in an Air Force hospital) called "The Mouse that Roared."  The premise was that a little European country was totally impoverished.  They knew that America rebuilt every Country that they fought, so their solution was to declare war on the United States.  They tried to get the attention of our State Department, but were completely ignored.  It was funny, but I missed a lot of the humor at the time due to my youth.

I can't think of any other country that is so generous to their former enemies.  Russia looted East Germany for years, before they gave a little back when East Germany officially endorsed communism.  Canada went home as soon as Adolf was declared dead.  Many Canadians gave their lives but America gave lives and financial support to the Allies.

You're down on large successful American companies, like Exxon and Walmart.  If you want to drive Walmart and Target out of business, just declare war on China.

We should reciprocate with import taxes equal percentage-wise to other countries, such as Japan and China that almost prohibate the importation of American goods.  Only the very rich drive American cars over there, but only as a status symbol.

Capitalism almost ruined America?  I think that Walmart and the Dollar Tree are doing a good job of it now.

We should bring all of our troops home from everywhere, then place them on the northern and southern borders of Our Country.  We'd ruin the economies of the very countries that complain about our troops and keep the riff-raff from crossing into the United States.

Posted By: geoff  on Saturday, August 16, 2008

John Handforth: Canada did not go home, dude: we had a base at a place called Lahr up until the 1990s. The Belgians & French & British also had their bases, in case your memory is equally selective there.

& I have seen the "Mouse that Roared." And its sequel.

And deists are Christians: but notice they said "Creator" and not "God"? Ever wonder why?

Wikipedia: "Deism became prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment, especially in the United Kingdom, France and the United States, mostly among those raised as Christians who found they could not believe in either a triune God, the divinity of Jesus, miracles, or the inerrancy of scriptures, but who did believe in one god. Initially it did not form any congregations, but in time deism led to the development of other religious groups, such as Unitarianism, which later developed into Unitarian Universalism. It continues to this day in the form of classical deism and modern deism."