Thread: World's Smallest Political Quiz

Originally Posted by steve

4. I simply don't understand why our liberal "friends" take every opportunity they can to criticize and bash this country. I thought liberals were enlightened and tolerant yet more vitriol comes from the left than any other side of the political/world spectrum today.

I don't understand why our conservative friends can't listen to intended constructive criticism without feeling insulted. I freely admit that I have at least some serious issues with what my country has done domestically and internationally. I believe we should question ourselves and encourage our friends to do the same. I would love to see America achieve the status which it frequently claims. I also believe it's possible, but dogma should be set aside.

X

Originally Posted by xman

I don't understand why our conservative friends can't listen to intended constructive criticism without feeling insulted. I freely admit that I have at least some serious issues with what my country has done domestically and internationally. I believe we should question ourselves and encourage our friends to do the same. I would love to see America achieve the status which it frequently claims. I also believe it's possible, but dogma should be set aside.

X

Constructive criticism does not usually come in the form of innuendos!
Without the innuendos, the derrogatory remarks and the outright assumptions constructive criticism is always welcome if given with a good and humble heart!

I'm a bit late but still

Originally Posted by izlat

I'm a bit late but still

Not surprised with your score, but I still like you!

Originally Posted by JMS

Constructive criticism does not usually come in the form of innuendos!
Without the innuendos, the derrogatory remarks and the outright assumptions constructive criticism is always welcome if given with a good and humble heart!

... *sigh*

Originally Posted by steve

Now, I will make the following comments.

1. More world relief aid as come from the US than any other country I'm aware of. Our citizens are among the most charitable in the world.

2. If world history be remembered, if not for the US, most of the world probably would be goose-stepping today.

Do most US citizens believe point 1 by the way?

here's a quote, of which there are numerous sites and government stats saying the same
"Considered as a portion of the nation’s economy, or of its federal expenditures, the U.S. is actually among the smallest donors of international aid among the world’s developed countries.
The Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development compiles statistics on how much Official Development Assistance the world’s 22 wealthiest countries give each year. The organization’s numbers show that as a portion of Gross National Income (roughly equivalent to GDP), the U.S. now ranks second-to-last in giving, at 0.16 percent. (In 2004, Italy dropped into last place below the U.S.)

The U.S. also gives much less than what the industrialized countries pledged to give at the 1992 Rio Conference, which was 0.7 percent of their GDP. U.S. development aid, at 0.16 percent of GDP, represents less than one-quarter of this promise."

The tsunami and disaster relief

Donations in absolute terms, showing that Norwegians donated the most per head of population ($13.20) followed by the Swedes ($12.04), the Dutch ($9.16) the Australians ($5.23) and so on, down to the Americans with a donation of $1.08 per head, and the French, whose per head donation amounted to 80 US cents.

"With the newly announced commitment, the United States moves from the middle of the pack of countries that have announced aid to the region to the top. The $350 million is more than three times the amount committed by Britain." The article didn't mention that the U.S. has five times Britain's population and six times its GDP.

I'm just curious.

And as for 2 it was a combined effort, would the US alone have been able to withstand the possible onslaught alone? Who can tell. Would the US alone have been able to invade Europe without the UK as a base? Doubtful. Would they have been in a position to if they had completely buried their heads in the sand and left their military as one of the worlds weaker ones? Didn't Russia weaken the Axis powers considerably?

Originally Posted by murph

And as for 2 it was a combined effort, would the US alone have been able to withstand the possible onslaught alone? Who can tell. Would the US alone have been able to invade Europe without the UK as a base? Doubtful. Would they have been in a position to if they had completely buried their heads in the sand and left their military as one of the worlds weaker ones? Didn't Russia weaken the Axis powers considerably?

We'll never be able to say whether the US would have been able to prevent a German takeover had we not interceded. The one thing that I believe we can say with relative certainty is that absent said intercession western Europe would have been defeated.

Let me say that I have nothing against arguments and political discussions - but have not seen much positive developments from these here on SRP. I am all for discussions and arguments, just wondered why they seem to deteriorate quick and lead to members leaving and stuff...

Re-reading some threads - it seems that comments can be a bit insensitive or even worse, and the avalanche is released...

So I would just like to ask everybody to keep his cool, think not only about the facts and opinions he is posting but also his tone, with which they are presented. I say we must be civil and open-minded enough to be able to live through these

Cheers
Ivo

I'm an American, and I never thought about the first one. Nor would it have ever occured to me since I don't know the statistics. I wouldn't be confident in saying the US is charitable financially or with tangible items like the OLPC or food or whatever.

For the second one... The only reason we were as helpful as we were was because we held out in the war for so long. We tried as hard as we could to stay out of the war. If we had jumped into the war at the beginning like everyone else or not get into the war, it's pretty hard to say how it would've turned out. Way too hypothetical. That's if I remember correctly from history.

My red dot was right in the middle and it says I have an open mind.

I can appreciate that others have locked into fixed views that they are deeply sensitive and passionate about and it is too simple to dismiss them and just say ‘grow a thicker skin’.

It is an open forum lads. Free now but purchased at great expense by the sacrifices of those before us; protected, because we are allowed to challenge and question.

We lot could have stuck with that mass produced razors or just stumbled our way to a pretty decent shave but instead we few, we happy few, have chosen to walk a different path.

We have chosen to share our efforts and combine our experience.

It is natural to consider that since we have this in common we may wish to explore what other views we share, or wish to test, and the off topic section allows that option to those who choose to exercise it.

Consider that a view expressed may not be representative of the community.
It may not even be one the author is yet married too and it may be a challenge to separate the wheat from the chaff.

We don't have to goose step because we are allowed relatively free speech. This is your opportunity to choose to exercise that option or do as my Grandma does. Avoid political and religious arguments when company is a coming.