Happy 4th of July (Kebir Blue)

Everyone, let's not forget: time and again, the politicians have forced the country into virtual bankruptcy, and each time we somehow manage to avoid pissing off our creditors. So I figure, when they start to get really pissed off, the country (I won't say "we") will invade several nearby countries, take all the cash they can get from them, and then continue not paying our bills. UP WITH THE PROGRESSIVES! THEY ARE THE ONLY HOPE FOR AMERICAN FUTURE!

Billy Bob, Ive got to completly disagree w/ you on one huge point. We will never invade our neighbors. For one Canada is a close ally and Mexico is obviously not worth invading when they are trying to get into the U.S., and I cant blame them. 1. Too much military presence in far too many areas in the world draining our resources and 2. Not setting tariffs on American factories producing in foreign lands and bringing products back into the country. Keep our factories at home, we have more jobs here and the Economy gets better.

See, the problem is, conservatives are warmongers, and Democrats are only barely better than conservatives (I won't lump Progressives and other left-wingers in with them). Despite the fact that Nader is on the ballot box, America essentially has a two-party system. Since neither of the two parties are that different, a third party would have to come into power and for a long time to repair the damage done from 150 years of rampant spending. Besides, we've been in Iraq for more time than all of WW2, this is the second time we've invaded, we have military bases in almost every country on earth, we still have troops stationed in Korea, we've invaded Afghanistan, various military groups have ongoing operations in many nations, we have troops in NATO, the National Guard, and we've become involved in the Libya conflicts. Not to mention spending more on military supplies than the rest of the world combined. Imagine how much we would save if we cut all of that.

We live on one planet. We are humans, not Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, whoever. The nature of the world makes us all one race. So it is everyones responsibility to give aid where it is needed and squash 'evil' where it is apparent. The US have that obligation as much as anyone. I agree BBJBS that the US takes on far too much of that responsibility, as I reckon the UK does as well, and I would question the motivation behind that, altruism doesn't strike me as a capitalistic value.
And I wish for everyones sake that the monies and effort provided by the really well meaning people would get to those that it was meant for, not the pockets of intermediatries (Sp?), that is the main issue as I see it. The west wouldn't need to spend half of what it does to aid other nations, including military, if some cynical greedy bastards out there weren't cashing in on it.

aww well

We may be one planet, but we have divided ourselves with religion, and then divided ourselves further with B.S. like Baptism vs. Protestantism vs. Catholicism, or however the f**k it goes. Then we use those divisions to divide ourselves into countries and ethnic groups, then divide it even more into a class system where the rich rule over the poor. So in order to make a truly equal world, we would first have to make sure everyone has the same amount of wealth, education, etc. Then we would have to abolish individual country borders, which from what I can tell about human nature, is almost impossible, unless staring in the face of imminent extinction of the entire species, and even then you'll have people who want it to happen. Anyway, the final (and probably most difficult) thing to get rid of would be religion. This, of course, would probably be completely impossible unless humanity really DID go extinct. So while we have the responsibility to help others who need aid, not only do we rarely do that (and I mean the world as a whole, not just the United States). And the U.S. doesn't actually pick up responsibility, we just take it where we think that we can get something out of it, i.e. Iraq and Vietnam. Iraq, of course, was for oil. Does anybody here dispute that? And a large part of Vietnam was large supplies of rubber. Korea, maybe, was a genuine war fought in the name of freedom. I don't know. But ever since the 60s, natural resources have been a large, and the main, part of American wars.

Grenada was conquered for its precious, precious nutmeg.

*Head starts to hurt*

It's two days after the 4th July. Let's not have this discussion go on for years, please! I beg of you!

unfornuantly, the real problem is greed

in every war, its the poor that do the fighting and dying, and the rich that reap the profits. please don't take me wrong, i personally, am disappointed with the lack of american resolve to see through the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict. my personal belief is that we are responsible for those countries until they are stable, and will no longer cause issues with other countries... but thats my personal belief, i'm not trying to sell you of that today.

what i am trying to sell you on, is that its the poor that do the work, the dying, the suffering, and the rich, that get the money, and glory. and frankly, things such religion and race are more of excuses, or rallying points than any real cause of war. for instance, the crusades... where certainly not motivated for the continuance of christian beliefs, but of exploitation of the middle east. granted that the crusades held off what would have meant waves of Muslims taking over Europe, but jeese, did God really want Christians to go kill people? i'd wager not. in fact, Christianity had its greatest expansion when its members where being fed to lions...

To the Brit's:

If you didn't teabag us 238 years ago, we would still be under your roof.

"The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea coming into the colonies. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and other political protests often refer to it.

The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act for a variety of reasons, especially because they believed that it violated their right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain. He apparently did not expect that the protestors would choose to destroy the tea rather than concede the authority of a legislature in which they were not directly represented.

The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, which, among other provisions, closed Boston's commerce until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775."


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

More on the Boston Tea Party


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

This got waaaaay out of hand.

I'm still an American, I don't like tea, and have only been to Boston once. We are only 235 years old. I love burritos (carne asada). Can anybody disagree w/ me that having a HQ in your country, producing in another land and bringing the product back to your own country is benificial to your people if the above stated parties aren't taxed. And alot of the freinds I have are struggling because of no job market. Makes no sense to me.