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Don't even get me started on free phones. I prepare taxes part time and a client told me that his brother has not one, not two, not three, but SIX free government cell phones.
Now, if the government can't even manage making sure that everyone only gets 1 free cell phone, I don't trust them to conduct any welfare programs efficiently. I mean, come on, who needs 6 phones - let alone free phones.
By the way, that guy is unemployed.
I think I should explain myself. I don't want to come across as anti-south.
People who make light of what war actually means usually don't have a living memory of war. War to many Americans is sending out soldiers or planes to do dirty work. War is judged and considered from a comfortable sofa where the actual reality is invisible. War happens to other people.
I grew up with grandparents who were driven from their homes 2 times. One time for each world war. My grandparents and their entire society stood among the rubble of their countries where practically everything was destroyed. Structural poverty and rationing lasted for many years. My grandfather spent part of the war in one of the worst concentration camps. My grandmother dissolved the family fortune in order to feed a sizable part of the village through the entire war.
Living in a war zone means poverty, disiease, death, torture, and treason. Civil war means genocide, rape, and the killing of women and children. In the US civil war, BOTH sides were scumbags. They just had different motives. Call it 'the war of northern aggression' all you will, but both sides commited attrocities. Southern hands were just as bloody as northern hands. In a civil war, the civilians are combattants. Do YOU see yourself killing women and children, destroying lives and exterminating people just for being northern? Because that's what civil war means.
I am Flemish. I understand the difficulties with a federal republic better than you might think. I can even sympathise with wanting to be free of the union. Having those feelings and addressing them through the methods of diplomacy or politics is just fine. That's why they exist. And those are not bad goals to pursue.
But the second you are being blase about going to war, and think it would somehow be an admirable thing, you just show that you have no clue what actual war means, and you're insulting the ones who do. I've worked with people from places like somalia. War is really not that much fun if your sister gets a bullet through the head and you have to leave her behind where she lies because you are running for your life.
Obama Phone should really be called Reagan Phone.....
I think you're misinformed about Americans on this. All of our generations have seen this country involved in a war in some capacity and I'd wager that if you polled the general public, the overwhelming majority would be within one degree of someone who has served in our military. I think society as a whole has become jaded by war, particularly with so much information available now, but I certainly don't think that Americans are any different than anyone else who isn't in an active war zone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
I think the point that was being made here is that we haven't had a real war on US soil since the civil war. I am not a history buff but I believe Russia invaded Alaska during one of the world wars but that doesn't count.
What many Americans don't understand is the devastation that occurs to YOUR belongings (home, possessions, resources, etc.). We may not "like war" or find it "cool" but we don't know what it's like to have people dying on our front lawn/sidewalk (depending if you're living in a city...).
Not much related to OP but what it comes with these misunderstanding i think that we Europeans understand the terms 'socialism' and even 'civil war' bit differently. maybe it's just cultural difference, i do not know.
Could it be (?) that because of your two party system you see politics only as 'liberty' vs 'socialim' and there is no in-betweeners?
While if you ask any European about socialist countries, you get somewhat a list like this:
http://List of socialist countries
White it comes to civil war, many people here see your civil war, how tragic it was, more like a conventional war: group of allied states fighting against another group of allied states.
While we understand the term 'civil war' more like something that happens in one country or state only.
Many European countries have bad examples of such. I'm in the age that as a kid i still had family members who had fought on both sides of our civil war. Some had been on side who 'won' and some who had faced defeat and lived through the terror and the revenge of the winners.
No need to tell those stories here, but civil war means brother against brother, wife against husband, neighbor against neighbor. Something that is going on in Syria today.
The idea of one or more states going independent is interesting. I have no much to say about such ideas. Congrats for whatever you choose but do not even dream about civil war.
There's a saying here that all wishes come true, sooner or later. Even bad ones.
I think some people in Hawaii might take issue with that lol!! Otherwise I agree with you 100% :).Quote:
Originally Posted by AspiringPolymath
LOL - when the "bail-out" occurred... I would argue that America became the largest socialist country on the planet Earth LOL :)!! And thank goodness is all I can say :).Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor
On the free phones, I have a "ministry to drug addicts' which moved in across the street from my business. Oh Joy!
Get busted for drugs, the judge sends you there instead of to jail! The ministry gets a check from the court, the fed, the state, free roam of the food bank for each poor soul. Ones with kids keep em there too. Yep, check for each kid! They go out every day and ask for money on the streetcorners. They can keep half of what they get. Women go in weighing 170 pounds and are going 300 in 6 months. No one ever leaves! Life is good. They all sit on the porch and talk on they cell phones. Then, we have Illegal aliens riding their bikes down the same street as they talk on their free phone. All you need is a kid in school to get a "Lone Star Card" which is all you need to get free food and a free phone!
A microcosm of what is to be. Good ol USA!
The Japs occupied Kiska and Attu during WW2.Quote:
Originally Posted by AspiringPolymath
"I believe Russia invaded Alaska during one of the world wars but that doesn't count." Tell that to the GI's who fought the Japs on Kiska and Attu, buddy. REAL bullets were flying.