Is the image of the United States in "free fall"?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ May 17 2006, 02:50 PM) [snapback]257037[/snapback]</div>

Being from Canada you probably dont fully understand the need for a strong military - you never had one and you never needed one. Your country never was called on to fight World Wars or any war for that matter as a "primary" force.

Read our Constitution and the opinions of our Founding Fathers for a start on the concept. Then you can review American and World History as it relates to Wars to give you additional information in which you can then make a more informed decision as to the important of a strong military.

Then you can understand why we won the nearly 50 year "conflict" with Soviet Union which was defeated after conquering 1/3 of the worlds land and populace. Than you can begin to understand the asynchronous threats we face now. Then you can begin to form opinions based more on fact than on fantasy.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ May 17 2006, 02:31 PM) [snapback]257025[/snapback]</div>

dude last time I had a problem and needed to see a doc for a problem ASAP, they couldn't get me an appointment for 3 weeks. All booked. When finally couldn't take the pain went to ER. Was told nothing wrong. Was send home and told if wanted could go to primary doc and have him send me for tests. Again no appointment for 2 weeks. Was finally seen and was told could be something I ate :blink:
My appendix burst 2 days later. Thank you for medieval times medical care. You are kidding yourself if you think you have modern medical care. Only shows how brainwashed you are.
You should go out more often and see a modern world

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eyeguy13 @ May 17 2006, 01:28 PM) [snapback]256964[/snapback]</div>

and on the upside, bears would no longer be the number one threat to America B)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SomervillePrius @ May 17 2006, 02:31 PM) [snapback]257024[/snapback]</div>

Very observant, I'd like to underline our unfortunate insularity and cultural seclusion with isolationism. Luck of proper exposure to the world events and world at large with it's diversity widens the gap immensely. We tend to dwell on our self-righteousness and self-appointed leadership in everything, this doesn't help to come across in a modest respectful way globally, it perpetuates scorn.

I'm very proud of our cultural and scientific heritage that gets massive respect in the world at large, sadly our foreign policies happen to be a complete disasters for a long time, tarring our image heedlessly. We can't force the whole world to think and act as we do, it's an impossibility and ruinous endeavor.

Our diplomacy is way to heavy-handed and imbued with arrogance and vituperation, mainly backfires and it's disadvantageous in a long run. Policies are laden with short-sidedness of radicalism that encroaches on formerly forerunning secularity, which intended to benefit all individuals. We used to be the shinning example of modernity for the world to embrace, now we resorted to conundrum full of radical religiosity. Time to address the image as our aspired legacy will dwindle.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ May 17 2006, 02:41 PM) [snapback]257030[/snapback]</div>

Being a New Yorker I used to carry that nonchalant satisfaction for living in the most culturally diverse city on the planet, this has changed many years ago after visiting Toronto, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo or Paris among other metropolises in the world. World has become very cosmopolitan, it's truly awakening when you get out beyond our borders.

I love Toronto, I was able to find a Maltese restaurant to my bewilderment, can't find one in NYC yet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ May 17 2006, 12:44 PM) [snapback]256929[/snapback]</div>

Ohh dude, one more thing. You have never lived anywhere else in a world therefore you have no comparison. The brainwashing tactics worked really well on you from the very first day you went to school and they told you that you live in the best country in the world because all these people want to come to America. Well, let me tell you that the fact that you have immigrants coming from the poorest nations to the United States is not a proof of this country being the best in the WORLD. Desperately poor people immigrate anywhere they can to improve their lives. BTW, Spain has one of the largest if not largest immigration rate and I don't see them screaming that they live in the best country in the world. Immigration is hardly an indication of country's prosperity. The most sought after passport in the world is one from Switzerland and from New Zealand. Again, it would be way more appropriate for them the scream that they live in the best countries in the world, but they are very modest about it. Something you obviously lack. Some narcissistic tendencies you can't curtail.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ May 17 2006, 01:31 PM) [snapback]257025[/snapback]</div>

I will say hi to the draft dodgers when I retire from VOLUNTARY active duty Air Force in 2.5 years. I'm currently an officer in the Air Force. I have no disdain for them. They didn't want to die and fight in Vietnam. They didn't think it was a just war and they were proven right. I don't believe in this war. I have the right to say that becaue I am serving my country now.

We both know that Conservative is not the same up in Canada as it is here.

I don't hate America. I love America. I volunteered to join the Air Force. I didn't have any school loans payed for by the government. No bonuses. I joined because I love my country. Can you understand that I'm disappointed in our country now? That doesn't mean I hate America. When I was stationed in Germany and Japan, I would get teary eyed at retreat when the flag came down and I was saluting it.

I don't want to move to Canada. Part of my comment was in jest. But if this country doesn't change course in 2006 and 2008, and the majority of Americans think like you....then I'm a minority and this country will not represent me anymore.




<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jim1eye @ May 17 2006, 02:24 PM) [snapback]257071[/snapback]</div>

Be careful...those cuddly, adorable bears will ALWAYS be the number one threat to America. Pooh Bear, the Care Bears, that Build a Bear thing in the mall....all a ruse by the Bear Association to make us think they are cute and cuddly (rumor has it, Karl Rove is helping out the Bear Association with their PR).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eyeguy13 @ May 17 2006, 06:10 PM) [snapback]257169[/snapback]</div>

Vietnam was unjust? Apparently you weren't there. It was unjust for the Vietnamese getting slaughtered by Uncle Ho. I say string the bastards up they abandoned me and my comrades as we fought to keep the villages safe from the invading North. It seems Jane Fonda and the radical left won that one for the Communists. The South Vietnamese were great and they fought hard to be free, but they were no match for Walter Cronkite and the radical campus idiots who knew NOTHING about what was really happening. BTW nobody wanted to die in Vietnam but I personally like to defend the underdog especially when they are being brutalized.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hybridTHEvibe @ May 17 2006, 04:23 PM) [snapback]257148[/snapback]</div>

Where to begin. Many Jews emigrating to Spain? Vasques and Catalunes are fighting to leave. And passports are used by people who are not in the issuing country. Oh yeah, I want to move to Switzerland, financier to Nazis, drug lords, and despots.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 17 2006, 03:54 PM) [snapback]257126[/snapback]</div>

Oh, the scorn, anything but the scorn and farting in my general direction.

Do you use a thesaurus?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RonH @ May 18 2006, 12:12 AM) [snapback]257323[/snapback]</div>

the point was that the fact that there is an immigration to a particular country is not an indicator of a country being the best in the WORLD. Besides, I was talking about the immigration as of today and not some historical evaluation of the immigration.
Too bad you missed that point.
Did I say you should move to Switzerland? Did I state which country was the best in the world? Funny, how people get paranoid when you tell them that something MIGHT be better somewhere else. Where is this mentality coming from? All I can think of is brainwashing.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RonH @ May 18 2006, 12:12 AM) [snapback]257323[/snapback]</div>

No, I don't. I just suck it out of my thumb, would you care to elaborate beyond 'farting' as you put it, how different the use of contempt or disdain be?

All global editorials use the word SCORN daily.

Is it rhyming with corn?

Sorry, that I've touched your immaculate pride.

Gee, I don't know that self-criticism is unpatriotic.

Please, present your own perceptions that will waft rosy toward general direction.

Other than that, have nice day

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(imntacrook @ May 17 2006, 11:49 PM) [snapback]257319[/snapback]</div>

I agree with you totally. The lefties are quick to forget the killing fields - millions slaughtered after we left - seems to have justified our presence there and our concepts of what the future held for them if we failed in our mission.

Also, the same lesson we should have learned in Vietnam is obviously escaping (hopefully unintentially) the lefties here - we lost that conflict hugely because of the fifth column here - militarily Tet was a huge victory for US and ARVN combat forces. And the fifth column here continue to undermine US troops in harms way in Iraq - every time I hear a lefty saying they support the troops in Iraq but not the mission I get waves of nausea - they know that by not supporting the mission they encourage our enemies to kill and brutalize our soldiers and their [Iraqi] own civilians.

And how do lefties differentiate between Darfur and Iraq - both have large muslim populations being slaughtered by a minority of radicalized fundamentalists? So in their "minds" its unforgiveable for the US not to be aiding those in Darfur but we dont belong in Iraq?? It must be so hard to be a lefty today - unless of course you just plainly hate eithe President Bush and/or the United States.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 18 2006, 07:34 AM) [snapback]257409[/snapback]</div>

It is not unpatriotic to critisize. It does not mean you do not use the ruse of "critisizing is not of itself unpatriotric" as a facade to hide your own disdain of the United States - something that is palpable here - which is ok for you - obviously a freedom you enjoy through the sacrifices of those that strongly disagree with you but respected your freedom to do so.

They also respect your right to burn our flag - something you probably also would not hesitate to do - again to you a form of "self-critisizing" - you probably view it just as some cloth woven together in some haphazzard way - while others view it as a symbol of patriotism, something lots of people actually died for - funny how two people can view "cloth" in such different ways.

I have wondered what it is like for people who place themselves at the center of their universe and believe nothing is greater than their "self". It must be lonely and at times hollow?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(imntacrook @ May 17 2006, 10:49 PM) [snapback]257319[/snapback]</div>

No I wasn't there and I thank you for serving your country when you were called to or volunteered for duty.

Don't forget history...."Uncle Ho" asked the US for help during the French occupation. We said no.

At that time, America was so afraid of communism that we thought the "Domino Theory" would hold and the whole area would fall to communism. As it turned out, that didn't happen. We are even trading with Vietnam now and people can go there on vacation. So all those American deaths were really for nothing. You are going to disagree, that's fine. We just see it differently.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RonH @ May 18 2006, 12:12 AM) [snapback]257323[/snapback]</div>

:lol:

You can spend $15,000 restoring a Pinto, give it a nice $6,000 paint job, but it's still a Pinto, know what I mean?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 18 2006, 06:34 AM) [snapback]257409[/snapback]</div>

Self criticism is not unpatriotic. I do it 3 times before breadfast. What does daily scorn in global editorials have to do with self-criticism. Other countries have axes to grind, too, and for the most part its for internal consumption sometimes by government owned or influenced press. Without igniting a discussion of mainstream media, it seems we get plenty of self-criticism in our national editorials, although I suppose there is the chance we have overlooked something that helpful, dispassionate foreigners may not have missed.

The "farting" reference is Monty Python. The trojan rabbit scene in "MP & the Holy Grail". Arthur would have been best advised to ignore the taunting of the foreign guards. Dang, a global reference.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eyeguy13 @ May 18 2006, 08:23 AM) [snapback]257413[/snapback]</div>

Thats true we can go there on vacation now, the land is beautiful and the people are great! But they are NOT free. They live under a communistic govt and if you think that OK, well OK, but the war was NOT unjust and the people we left behind got screwed bigtime. Not to mention the Killing fields. Its interesting how the Left glosses over that. And why would we help the butcher Uncle Ho?

Besides I was commenting on your assertion that it was "unjust"

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RonH @ May 18 2006, 10:15 AM) [snapback]257465[/snapback]</div>

Globe includes USA, last time I checked...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ May 18 2006, 08:01 AM) [snapback]257412[/snapback]</div>

Your rebuttal is ONLY an act of smearing of my persona. Completely unsubstantiated, as I have never passed any comments on an issue of burning or disrespecting of the flag, not only our own but also foreign.

You don't know anything about my personal stance when it comes to sacrifices in the name of liberty, to the contrary I've always given full recognition to all those on PC or elsewhere, who have in one way or the other served our country or other great causes.

I don't have a flag representing pride hanging from my window nor I have any symbols on display to the outside world. Instead they are being proudly recognized in my private environment by myself and those who are dear and close to me.

Patriotic virtues are dear to me via introverted ways. I solely respect those who have an extroverted philosophy about it, their choice.

Admiration for my country will not manifest itself vis a vis hubris and self-righteousness. According to my upbringing and ethical/moral outlook on social and national issues, I'll speak out, positively or negatively when due. You obviously clung to the negative of my rebuttal for an ease of attacking my character without an iota of proof.

To experience and express freedom, it means to speak out, not to shut up and putting a myopic blind eye to the egregious complacence or perversions of jurisprudence. It means to challenge the status quo.

You may resort to more personal attacks and fallacious accusations. Clearly a tactic of your choice. I got used to it as squidly does it daily, by inserting an invective in a form of "Hate-Smug-Spite", those are his favorite.

-more ad-hominem coming, it's a given-