Don't they like the USA anymore?

[Terry Sessford]

Ignore the Bush bashers. They are ignorant and just spout what they
hear on the tube. Some were saying job losses were his fault barely
a few months into his term and you can't reason with them.

I think that it is fair to say that the general perception of Bush outside of the US is that he is, at best, a clown. I know of no one who has any respect for him -- everything about him shouts 'incompetent joker who is totally out of his depth and, as a consequence, potentially dangerous for the rest of the world'. If the majority of US citizens want Bush as their president then fine, that is their democratic right, but they should not then be surprised if the rest of the world laughs and is unsympathetic to US concerns. The US, as a nation, will not be respected by other countries whilst Bush is president. And, to echo an earlier poster, yes, Tony Blair of the UK is perceived as being Bush's poodle -- and it is perception that I share.

Terry.

Funny how people can be so ignorant of so much..the President does
not create jobs or lose them...also, the economy went downhill
before President Bush took office..and its been on an upswing
lately thanks in part to President bush doing what little the
democrats and liberals will let him...your posts by the way had
nothing to do with the original question you may have cheap DSL
access but we are a free country....

http://www.pbase.com/wbrosen/photoart

 

[hugh jampton]

First President in a long long long time to loose so many jobs so
quickly. If your unemployed you wont want a new digital.
Canadian Adsl selling for $16 canadian a month (about $10 US) The
US must catch up in pricing

How dare you call our lying two faced weasel Prime minister a poodle

 

[synp]

Socialism has nothing to do with it. All those so-called socialist parties in Europe and Canada are not preaching or implementing socialism. They're advocation a welfare state.

You seem to object to the government providing any service. Taking this view to extreme, why not open the military and police to free competition. Just leave the streets to various street gangs who will compete for protection money. We all know, that this would cost the citizens way more than the taxes used to finance the police the way things are. The truth is, that competition does not always result in better service and lower prices. While competition does work for some products, it does not work for others. Two examples:

• where there are great economies of scale, a natural monopoly is likely. Think Microsoft, or a power utility. Choosing between a government monopoly and a private one, I'd take the government monopoly any day.

• where there is a star system involved. In certain fields, certain players are perceived as having a much higher value than other players, meaning that people would be willing to pay far, far more for their services as opposed to the equivalent services provided by others. Hollywood has that problem. There are plenty of unemployed actors with just as much talent and good looks as stars who get multi-million-dollar salaries. There is no reason to pay these salaries, yet they do. The medical profession has the same problem. People are willing to pay huge amounts of money to famous specialists when they get seriously ill, even though those specialists are only marginally better than other doctors. This is because sick people don't make their choices rationally.

While the market failure in Hollywood is not a big problem for us, and does not warrant government intervention, the failure of the medical community affects us all. That is why your idea won't work so well. The famous doctors will not work for the insurers, and people who get very sick will go to those stars and pay all their money.

Rather than dogmatically reject an idea because it is "socialist", you should consider its merits. Europeans pay a lot less for similar medical treatment as Americans. This does result in less European doctors who are millionaires.

My own personal view is have a government mandated miniumum
standard for what private health insurance should cover and then
require all employers to provide at least that miniumum coverage.
This way competition is retained, everyone has health insurance.
Automobile insurance works this way now. Everyone must purchase
auto insurance to drive. So there is pretty much full coverage for
auto insurance and the government has not created an inefficient
class of entitiled workers to administer auto insurance.

 

[*isteve]

You seem to object to the government providing any service. Taking
this view to extreme, why not open the military and police to free
competition. Just leave the streets to various street gangs who
will compete for protection money. We all know, that this would
cost the citizens way more than the taxes used to finance the
police the way things are. The truth is, that competition does not
always result in better service and lower prices. While
competition does work for some products, it does not work for
others. Two examples:

• where there are great economies of scale, a natural monopoly is

likely. Think Microsoft, or a power utility. Choosing between a
government monopoly and a private one, I'd take the government
monopoly any day.

• where there is a star system involved. In certain fields,

certain players are perceived as having a much higher value than
other players, meaning that people would be willing to pay far, far
more for their services as opposed to the equivalent services
provided by others. Hollywood has that problem. There are plenty
of unemployed actors with just as much talent and good looks as
stars who get multi-million-dollar salaries. There is no reason to
pay these salaries, yet they do. The medical profession has the
same problem. People are willing to pay huge amounts of money to
famous specialists when they get seriously ill, even though those
specialists are only marginally better than other doctors. This is
because sick people don't make their choices rationally.

While the market failure in Hollywood is not a big problem for us,
and does not warrant government intervention, the failure of the
medical community affects us all. That is why your idea won't work
so well. The famous doctors will not work for the insurers, and
people who get very sick will go to those stars and pay all their
money.

Rather than dogmatically reject an idea because it is "socialist",
you should consider its merits. Europeans pay a lot less for
similar medical treatment as Americans. This does result in less
European doctors who are millionaires.

My own personal view is have a government mandated miniumum
standard for what private health insurance should cover and then
require all employers to provide at least that miniumum coverage.
This way competition is retained, everyone has health insurance.
Automobile insurance works this way now. Everyone must purchase
auto insurance to drive. So there is pretty much full coverage for
auto insurance and the government has not created an inefficient
class of entitiled workers to administer auto insurance.

 

[Ermac]

Meanwhile sports fans and college kids can insight a riot when
their team wins. A riot that often results in the injury or death
of innocent bystanders as well as destruction of public and private
property. They receive a slap on the wrist by the way. Oh yeah and
then whine about it being unfair.

Because soccer crowds are known for their well mannered behavior!!!

If you live in the U.S. you should take this seriously. Sure soccer crowds have been rioting forever. But that is no reason to make light of this situation. I am trying to tell you that our current government doesn't care if college kids want to get get drunk and die or burn cars for fun. But if you're going to speak out against a war that defys U.N. policy, destroys diplomatic relations with our allies and makes our country look like the German war machine of 1935, you risk spending 25 years to life in prison. That my friend sounds worse than Saddam Hussain's regeim to me. Fortunatly the bill didn't pass... this time. Those responsable for such a mockery of our constitution won't give up though and it's people who turn a blind eye to their indiscretion who help them win.

But I'm afraid so many americans these days are too concerned about how the next digicam from their favorite brand is going to stack up against the 'competetion' and whether or not the 'better' version will be sold in the U.S. to care about their civil liberties and rights. All we want is gas for our H2's and we don't care how we get it. It's sick and pathetic. Especially when another poster on this thead expressed their concern for having another 3,000 of us killed in another terrorist attack and they'd give up even more rights to stay protected. I've got news for him and the rest of this forum... 40,000 of us die every year in car accidents but that doesn't stop any of us from getting up everyday, getting in our gas and oil guzzeling death traps and fighting everybody else in their gas and oil guzzeling death traps on the freeway so we can get to work or the mall faster than they do. BTW other countries including England said to us after 9/11, "welcome to the rest of the world."

Do you see my point yet? Am I wrong in thinking that the general attitude of american society has become blase' to the rest of the world and worse yet our own government's actions in favor of new toys to occupy us? Please be my guest and tell me I'm wrong.

 

[ron mcmillan]

Your sentiments are a breath of fresh air. If only you could get a few tens of millions of your fellow countrymen to wake up and smell the barbarity that is being perpetrated in the name of democracy, then perhaps we could all look forward to change after the next Presidential election. But as it is, with reported 70 percent of Americans seemingly of the totally errant belief that Sadaam was involved in 9-11 (a patent nonsense, but not one the Bush cabal has been shy of maintaining, at least until very recently), then I fear we're all in for another four years of this big-business-owned regime that damns the rest of us to its exploitation and blinkered so-called foreign 'policy'. Woe betide us all.

rm

If you live in the U.S. you should take this seriously. Sure soccer

crowds have been rioting forever. But that is no reason to make
light of this situation. I am trying to tell you that our current
government doesn't care if college kids want to get get drunk and
die or burn cars for fun. But if you're going to speak out against
a war that defys U.N. policy, destroys diplomatic relations with
our allies and makes our country look like the German war machine
of 1935, you risk spending 25 years to life in prison. That my
friend sounds worse than Saddam Hussain's regeim to me. Fortunatly
the bill didn't pass... this time. Those responsable for such a
mockery of our constitution won't give up though and it's people
who turn a blind eye to their indiscretion who help them win.

But I'm afraid so many americans these days are too concerned about
how the next digicam from their favorite brand is going to stack up
against the 'competetion' and whether or not the 'better' version
will be sold in the U.S. to care about their civil liberties and
rights. All we want is gas for our H2's and we don't care how we
get it. It's sick and pathetic. Especially when another poster on
this thead expressed their concern for having another 3,000 of us
killed in another terrorist attack and they'd give up even more
rights to stay protected. I've got news for him and the rest of
this forum... 40,000 of us die every year in car accidents but that
doesn't stop any of us from getting up everyday, getting in our gas
and oil guzzeling death traps and fighting everybody else in their
gas and oil guzzeling death traps on the freeway so we can get to
work or the mall faster than they do. BTW other countries including
England said to us after 9/11, "welcome to the rest of the world."

Do you see my point yet? Am I wrong in thinking that the general
attitude of american society has become blase' to the rest of the
world and worse yet our own government's actions in favor of new
toys to occupy us? Please be my guest and tell me I'm wrong.

 

[Howard Katz]

The strenght has been on both sides. If a war had happend it would
certainly have affected the whole world and not only Vienna.
I don't say that everything the US did was a wrong decission.
Like you sayed, the war was prevented...
Maybe Irak just wasn't strong enough to prevent a war with the US.
North Korea seems to be more in balance and therefore can still go
on.

I am just hoping that conflicts in the future can be solved in a
peacefull way which demands more sensible politicians. I hope all
humans will eventually get intelligent enough to live together in
peace.

Now everybody that thinks about peace and who and how it could be
archived is getting called a peacenic, leftwing, hardcore green,...
This is sad.

And while waiting for these so called "sensible politicians" thousands more Iraqi's would be slaughtered by a butchering dictator.

 

[Howard Katz]

Meanwhile sports fans and college kids can insight a riot when
their team wins. A riot that often results in the injury or death
of innocent bystanders as well as destruction of public and private
property. They receive a slap on the wrist by the way. Oh yeah and
then whine about it being unfair.

Because soccer crowds are known for their well mannered behavior!!!

If you live in the U.S. you should take this seriously. Sure soccer
crowds have been rioting forever. But that is no reason to make
light of this situation. I am trying to tell you that our current
government doesn't care if college kids want to get get drunk and
die or burn cars for fun. But if you're going to speak out against
a war that defys U.N. policy, destroys diplomatic relations with
our allies and makes our country look like the German war machine
of 1935, you risk spending 25 years to life in prison. That my
friend sounds worse than Saddam Hussain's regeim to me. Fortunatly
the bill didn't pass... this time. Those responsable for such a
mockery of our constitution won't give up though and it's people
who turn a blind eye to their indiscretion who help them win.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling. This is just blatant mis-statement.

But I'm afraid so many americans these days are too concerned about
how the next digicam from their favorite brand is going to stack up
against the 'competetion' and whether or not the 'better' version
will be sold in the U.S. to care about their civil liberties and
rights. All we want is gas for our H2's and we don't care how we
get it. It's sick and pathetic. Especially when another poster on
this thead expressed their concern for having another 3,000 of us
killed in another terrorist attack and they'd give up even more
rights to stay protected. I've got news for him and the rest of
this forum... 40,000 of us die every year in car accidents but that
doesn't stop any of us from getting up everyday, getting in our gas
and oil guzzeling death traps and fighting everybody else in their
gas and oil guzzeling death traps on the freeway so we can get to
work or the mall faster than they do. BTW other countries including
England said to us after 9/11, "welcome to the rest of the world."

Do you see my point yet? Am I wrong in thinking that the general
attitude of american society has become blase' to the rest of the
world and worse yet our own government's actions in favor of new
toys to occupy us? Please be my guest and tell me I'm wrong.

You're wrong.

 

[Howard Katz]

Your sentiments are a breath of fresh air. If only you could get a
few tens of millions of your fellow countrymen to wake up and smell
the barbarity that is being perpetrated in the name of democracy,
then perhaps we could all look forward to change after the next
Presidential election. But as it is, with reported 70 percent of
Americans seemingly of the totally errant belief that Sadaam was
involved in 9-11 (a patent nonsense, but not one the Bush cabal has
been shy of maintaining, at least until very recently), then I fear
we're all in for another four years of this big-business-owned
regime that damns the rest of us to its exploitation and blinkered
so-called foreign 'policy'. Woe betide us all.

rm

Saddam's lack of involvement in 9-11 is completely irrelevant. He was a brutal dictator who slaughtered thousands (perhaps millions) of innocent people on an ongoing basis. "Civilized" Europe never has had much of a problem turning a blind eye towards the suffering and massacre of others. Additionally, Europe has had centuries to perfect the politics of inaction.

 

[Howard Katz]

Come on...
what is really sad is your state of mind.
All this states are just some 100 years behind sozial developement
in the EU or the US.
What they don't need is war, they need to develope the country from
a 3rd world state to a 1st world country. When that has happened
the political systems will change slowly to democratic systems.
Why...because people get educated.

The UN are a good tool to control and develope countrys if no
countrys work against it only in there own interests.

Terror only came to the US couse they interfered with the local
interests of these countrys.
One way to stop this developement is not to interfere with local
political interests by supporting one group to fight the
other...just drop interest on these countrys.
It wouldn't hurt the US to try some more low profile international
politics.

Sometimes you have to lose something or give away interests to gain
something.

Only 7-12 year old Kids that grew up in a war and know what it
fells like to see people dying every day should be allowed to get
politicians and negotiate for peace.

Because the European politicians who grew up witnessing WWI did such a great job? SOunds to me like you really understand 7-12 year old kid logic.

 

[Howard Katz]

Ignore the Bush bashers. They are ignorant and just spout what they
hear on the tube. Some were saying job losses were his fault barely
a few months into his term and you can't reason with them.

I think that it is fair to say that the general perception of Bush
outside of the US is that he is, at best, a clown. I know of no
one who has any respect for him -- everything about him shouts
'incompetent joker who is totally out of his depth and, as a
consequence, potentially dangerous for the rest of the world'. If
the majority of US citizens want Bush as their president then fine,
that is their democratic right, but they should not then be
surprised if the rest of the world laughs and is unsympathetic to
US concerns. The US, as a nation, will not be respected by other
countries whilst Bush is president. And, to echo an earlier
poster, yes, Tony Blair of the UK is perceived as being Bush's
poodle -- and it is perception that I share.

Terry.

Oh no!!! We're going to lose the respect of the great appeasers of the world. How will we go on?

 

[Ermac]

Yup, but can ya put a price on your family? How much? Besides its a
war we didnt start..remember the African embassaies? The USS Cole,
the first Trade center attack? The Kobar Towers? The military
barracks in Lebanon?

http://www.pbase.com/wbrosen/photoart

My family in the eyes of this current administration is worth approximately 1/2 gallon of OIL.

We didn't start this war? Who trained Osama Bin Laden? The CIA that's who. Who gave Iraq Money and weapons? The U.S. that's who.

I remember the Embassies and the U.S.S. Cole and the first WTC attack. And I am aware that the anti-terrorism plan that former pres. Clinton had in place was dismantled by the Bush administration. Guess what happened after that?

 

[*isteve]

Saddam's lack of involvement in 9-11 is completely irrelevant. He
was a brutal dictator who slaughtered thousands (perhaps millions)
of innocent people on an ongoing basis. "Civilized" Europe never
has had much of a problem turning a blind eye towards the suffering
and massacre of others. Additionally, Europe has had centuries to
perfect the politics of inaction.

Hmm - "Katz" is an interesting name - your family from "civilised" europe by any chance? Probably emigrated because of all the "inaction" back home.

 

[*isteve]

And while waiting for these so called "sensible politicians"
thousands more Iraqi's would be slaughtered by a butchering
dictator.

And how many will die now as a result of US intervention? The future stability of Iraq is very questionable. Before you convince anyone you have to win the peace. I hope you do - because Iraqis deserve a break - and because right or wrong you will get blamed for all the subsequent carnage that occurs. Iraq is a tough country to govern. The British made sure of that!

 

[Howard Katz]

Saddam's lack of involvement in 9-11 is completely irrelevant. He
was a brutal dictator who slaughtered thousands (perhaps millions)
of innocent people on an ongoing basis. "Civilized" Europe never
has had much of a problem turning a blind eye towards the suffering
and massacre of others. Additionally, Europe has had centuries to
perfect the politics of inaction.

Hmm - "Katz" is an interesting name - your family from "civilised"
europe by any chance? Probably emigrated because of all the
"inaction" back home.

In fact that's exactly correct. After the appeasement that lead to Hitler's astounding European successes and 3 years in camps my parents came to the US.

 

[Terry Sessford]

Ignore the Bush bashers. They are ignorant and just spout what they
hear on the tube. Some were saying job losses were his fault barely
a few months into his term and you can't reason with them.

I think that it is fair to say that the general perception of Bush
outside of the US is that he is, at best, a clown. I know of no
one who has any respect for him -- everything about him shouts
'incompetent joker who is totally out of his depth and, as a
consequence, potentially dangerous for the rest of the world'. If
the majority of US citizens want Bush as their president then fine,
that is their democratic right, but they should not then be
surprised if the rest of the world laughs and is unsympathetic to
US concerns. The US, as a nation, will not be respected by other
countries whilst Bush is president. And, to echo an earlier
poster, yes, Tony Blair of the UK is perceived as being Bush's
poodle -- and it is perception that I share.

Terry.

Oh no!!! We're going to lose the respect of the great appeasers of
the world. How will we go on?

Howard, sadly this is the sort of response that is all too typical of the US these days. Who said anything about "appeasers"? What a simplistic view of the rest of the world this reveals. Perhaps the US really does deserve to be led by a clown like Bush. I just feel huge sympathy for all those millions of decent and intelligent US citizens who have to be represented on the world stage by a muppet like Bush.

Terry.

 

[GodSpeaks]

After reading about the lack of interest in the US market, I don't
get it with these camera and electronics manufacturers. The largest
consumer market in the world, and they won't release new products
in the USA. Don't they like us anymore? Maybe the European
Community is the new consumer hotbed. That Euro sure looks inviting.

--
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
I can feel an angel sliding up to me

 

[malibuman]

I used to live in Detroit and there are all sorts of heart
clinics/surgeons and other specialty docs that had a large
percentage of their business built to help Canadians that are in
life threatoning situations and come over the border so they can
get treated without a wait that might kill them otherwise.

Let me remind you that this isn't necessarily a bad thing for Canadians. So we have to shop for some health services south of the border, so what? The important thing is that we're getting the best care possible because Canada takes an interest in it's citizens. A person doesn't have to be a member of the elite 10% in order to get the best possible care.

Greed is an unfortuanate thing, and I will concede that there are far too many Canadian doctors getting into the field for money rather then actually being interested in helping people. Those are the ones that head down to the US. That's life I guess, and the free market system is definitely the place to enjoy that brand of "success", as it seems to be commonly known though I'm not sure if being rich and being successful are really the same thing.

People shouldn't have to be wealthy to get the best possible care. I'll tell you a true story about the Canadian healthcare system. My wife just had twin girls. Twins are automatically high risk, so we automatically got an ultrasound every two weeks which was great peace of mind. The labor was long and got complicated, eventually ending in a cesarian section. Throughout the whole pregnancy and delivery our care was amazing. There was no pressure to leave the hospital before we were ready. There were no questions about whether we were covered for this or that.. we just got what we needed so that mom and children would be safe.

My wife is on a message board with other pregnant women, and we were amazed at the debating that would go on from Amarican moms about how many ultrasounds were necessesary seeing as they cost $200+ each in the US, and what how much everything else costs. Money this and money that. I can't imagine the flurry of red tape there must be when a last minute C-section becomes necessary. It made my wife and I appreciate Canada a little more, for sure. There is no doubt that money is important for living, but there are some times in a person's life when you just shouldn't have to factor it into the choices you make.

 

[Gaetan J.]

$87 billion later. Or after we install puppet governments in the
entire Middle East. Or should we just invade Russia and have
Siberia's vast natural resources to ourselves. Wake up America.....
IT'S YOUR LEADER!

Put a few condition and invite them to become another state of the US ? United state of the World, USW, sounds good to me

--
Gaetan J.

 

[Howard Katz]

Ignore the Bush bashers. They are ignorant and just spout what they
hear on the tube. Some were saying job losses were his fault barely
a few months into his term and you can't reason with them.

I think that it is fair to say that the general perception of Bush
outside of the US is that he is, at best, a clown. I know of no
one who has any respect for him -- everything about him shouts
'incompetent joker who is totally out of his depth and, as a
consequence, potentially dangerous for the rest of the world'. If
the majority of US citizens want Bush as their president then fine,
that is their democratic right, but they should not then be
surprised if the rest of the world laughs and is unsympathetic to
US concerns. The US, as a nation, will not be respected by other
countries whilst Bush is president. And, to echo an earlier
poster, yes, Tony Blair of the UK is perceived as being Bush's
poodle -- and it is perception that I share.

Terry.

Oh no!!! We're going to lose the respect of the great appeasers of
the world. How will we go on?

Howard, sadly this is the sort of response that is all too typical
of the US these days. Who said anything about "appeasers"? What a
simplistic view of the rest of the world this reveals. Perhaps the
US really does deserve to be led by a clown like Bush. I just feel
huge sympathy for all those millions of decent and intelligent US
citizens who have to be represented on the world stage by a muppet
like Bush.

Terry.

Or we can over analyze situations and use the results of our overly complex thought processes to excuse our inaction. Identifying good and evil is not nearly as difficult a task as most like to pretend.

Nations, like most individuals act purely out of self interest in most cases. The situation in Iraq is no exception. France, Germany and Russia were concerned about their financial interests in the region, pure and simple.