Tarz Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Jonathan, you keep banging on about free health care and even go as far as 'genuinely' free health care. If only such a thing existed. The NHS isn't funded out of thin air, but I know you already know this really. It's paid for out of taxpayers money, so it's absurd to suggest it's free. I'm proud of the NHS, for all its good and bad points. It is a bottomless pit though which means no matter how much government funding is given, it will never be enough. Yes a health system funded by taxes is of course preferable to the lottery of one based on private insurance, but it certainly isn't 'free'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarz Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Personally I don't think national pride is a bad thing....Agreed. No harm in remembering and celebrating all that your country has contributed to the world. No guilt trip for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xveganjoshx Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 Personally I don't think national pride is a bad thing....Good because I bleed red, white, and blue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarz Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 Also (and I am equally disapproving of the UK) what does the US have to be proud of? Withdrawing from Kyoto? Invading Iraq? Invading Iran? Selling arms to Iraq and Iran? Funding and directly involving themselves in "Administration changes" all around the world to suit their interests? The majority of the population having no concept of a world beyond their own borders? A lack of genuinely free health care? The biggest gap between the richest and poorest people in the world? Many of the most fundamentally extreme religious zealots in the world? You are adopting a highly selective and blinkered view of the US, and you are judging the US on it's post 1945 activities, and not on the bigger picture of it's complete history. American's should be proud of the great country the likes of Washington and Jefferson established, even if one could argue the US has followed the wrong course in recent times, a fact that many Americans themselves concede. What has the US to be proud of? Erm, a hell of a lot. Ask Eastern Europeans liberated post-1991 what they think of America. It's in no small part to the US that - Kosovo aside - no major conflict has been fought on continental Europe since 1945. One could go on, but I won't. I can be critical of the US too when it is warranted, and I'm certainly no apologist for the US, I just think the whole anti-Americanism thing gets a bit OTT and childish at times, especially when people refuse to acknowledge and/or concede the good that the US does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CollegeB Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 As far as votes actually counting...Kucinich is funding a HN recount. So there is more evidence to indicate that your votes dont (matter unless you make sure they do). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsorlando Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 I'm definitely not going to get into my political views, but I did watch an interview with a male democratic politician, and he said some very interesting things. About our troops in the Iraq war he said it was of course a lot easier to put them in the war, than it would be to remove them, that would take some time. Also he said some of the countries we're having trouble with, it wasn't that those countries "hated" the USA, just that they were disappointed in us, that pretty much the United States had let a lot of people down, and some countries now have a lesser thought of our government, but that can change. I also watched an interview with Donald Trump, and his political view on things were quite amusing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Its definitely not our job to keep other countries liking us but at the same time we shouldn't step on the toes of others to get what we want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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