is President Bush *really* that stupid?
01 May 2001, 10:10 PM
#1
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is it just me or is do you lot hear something everyday that makes you fear for the worlds safety???
I just cannot believe the guy, missile defence systems, 'strategic competition' with China (rather than Cliton's 'strategic partnership').
it was a sad day indeed when he got into power, he is *bad* news imho
rant over.
Matt.
I just cannot believe the guy, missile defence systems, 'strategic competition' with China (rather than Cliton's 'strategic partnership').
it was a sad day indeed when he got into power, he is *bad* news imho
rant over.
Matt.
01 May 2001, 10:41 PM
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Matt,
maybe if he ever leaves America, he will start to realise that there is a whole "rest of the World" out there!!!!
In-bred is not quite the word, but he does need to get out more.
mb
maybe if he ever leaves America, he will start to realise that there is a whole "rest of the World" out there!!!!
In-bred is not quite the word, but he does need to get out more.
mb
01 May 2001, 10:45 PM
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Matt - do you really want me to reply to this? I think you already know the answer 
My vote is move to Swizterland - at least they've still got their shelters....
Chris
My vote is move to Swizterland - at least they've still got their shelters....
Chris
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02 May 2001, 12:14 AM
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Mr. Bush is being managed.....just ignore that person behind the curtin with his hand up bush's backside. Is it just me or did it seem that the US economy went due south when Bush was declared the victor in Florida?
Lovejoy
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02 May 2001, 12:45 AM
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According to a friend that is now living and working in America most Americans voted for Bush because they thought it was the previous President Bush being voted back in again....
02 May 2001, 08:41 AM
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When Caroline Church (the singer) met Bush, he asked her where she was from. She replies "Wales". Bush says, "Er, what state is that in?".
Extremely worrying.
Also, before becoming the most powerful man in the world (after Bill Gates), he had only been outside of the US four times. Compared to most Americans he is a seasoned traveller. 75% of Americans do not hold a passport...
Extremely worrying.
Also, before becoming the most powerful man in the world (after Bill Gates), he had only been outside of the US four times. Compared to most Americans he is a seasoned traveller. 75% of Americans do not hold a passport...
02 May 2001, 10:43 AM
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don't forget, bush is not the president. dick cheney is and he's a clever guy. bush is the front-man and campaign fund-raiser. a "titular" head-of-state - much like reagan was. apt description if you ask me.
02 May 2001, 01:36 PM
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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by skipjack:
<B>
don't forget, bush is not the president. dick cheney is and he's a clever guy.[/quote]
..who's had how many heart attacks so far??
<B>
don't forget, bush is not the president. dick cheney is and he's a clever guy.[/quote]
..who's had how many heart attacks so far??
02 May 2001, 01:43 PM
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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Dave T-S:
<B>....many Americans have never been outside their own county, let alone state.....[/quote]
Why should they? Their country is a macrocosm fo the rest of the world anyway. Virtually all cultures are represented there, they have all the climates from sub-tropical to Arctic, and they have all the ranges of terrain you could ever want. They have all the natural resources they need as well.
Why is that such a wonderful country is inhabited by the biggest bunch of arrogant, ignorant tw@ts the world has produced?
Doh!
Geezer
<B>....many Americans have never been outside their own county, let alone state.....[/quote]
Why should they? Their country is a macrocosm fo the rest of the world anyway. Virtually all cultures are represented there, they have all the climates from sub-tropical to Arctic, and they have all the ranges of terrain you could ever want. They have all the natural resources they need as well.
Why is that such a wonderful country is inhabited by the biggest bunch of arrogant, ignorant tw@ts the world has produced?
Doh!
Geezer
02 May 2001, 02:43 PM
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bros,
Whoops! In a post slagging off Bush, I make my own mistake due to ignorance. However, as someone who isn't a world leader, and who also isn't into opera or screechy little girls who sing opera, I think I've got an excuse.
Whoops! In a post slagging off Bush, I make my own mistake due to ignorance. However, as someone who isn't a world leader, and who also isn't into opera or screechy little girls who sing opera, I think I've got an excuse.
02 May 2001, 02:43 PM
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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Geezer:
<B> Why should they? Their country is a macrocosm fo the rest of the world anyway. Virtually all cultures are represented there, they have all the climates from sub-tropical to Arctic, and they have all the ranges of terrain you could ever want. They have all the natural resources they need as well.
Why is that such a wonderful country is inhabited by the biggest bunch of arrogant, ignorant tw@ts the world has produced?
Doh!
Geezer
[/quote]
Whilst I agree that Bush leaves a lot to be desired, let's just take a good look at ourselves before we start accusing Americans - all 250 million of them - as being arrogant and ignorant.
Takes a certain amout of arrogance just to think that we're so much better than those poor ol' dumb Yanks. You know, the ones with a higher life expectancy, better health service (no, it's not free, but unlike here you only have to pay for it once), and higher per capita income. The country where class is no barrier to achievement, where there is a far greater ethnic minority representation in positions of power.
OK, they have disadvantages such as crazy gun laws, the mad Right, the violent anti-abortionists, and some of the worst TV in the whole world, but then we have BSE, foot & mouth, a crappy health service, poor education, 30 years of civil war in Ireland a prime minister who thinks he's a president ... AND WE CAN'T EVEN BUILD ONE SODDING FOOTBALL STADIUM.
(Climbs off soapbox)
Bros
<B> Why should they? Their country is a macrocosm fo the rest of the world anyway. Virtually all cultures are represented there, they have all the climates from sub-tropical to Arctic, and they have all the ranges of terrain you could ever want. They have all the natural resources they need as well.
Why is that such a wonderful country is inhabited by the biggest bunch of arrogant, ignorant tw@ts the world has produced?
Doh!
Geezer
[/quote]
Whilst I agree that Bush leaves a lot to be desired, let's just take a good look at ourselves before we start accusing Americans - all 250 million of them - as being arrogant and ignorant.
Takes a certain amout of arrogance just to think that we're so much better than those poor ol' dumb Yanks. You know, the ones with a higher life expectancy, better health service (no, it's not free, but unlike here you only have to pay for it once), and higher per capita income. The country where class is no barrier to achievement, where there is a far greater ethnic minority representation in positions of power.
OK, they have disadvantages such as crazy gun laws, the mad Right, the violent anti-abortionists, and some of the worst TV in the whole world, but then we have BSE, foot & mouth, a crappy health service, poor education, 30 years of civil war in Ireland a prime minister who thinks he's a president ... AND WE CAN'T EVEN BUILD ONE SODDING FOOTBALL STADIUM.
(Climbs off soapbox)
Bros
02 May 2001, 03:12 PM
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I was talking to my Canadian girlfriend a while ago and she mentioned that US Citizens can travel to the following (& maybe more) places without a passport...
Canada
Mexico
Hawaii
US Virgin Islands
Bahamas
Puerto Rico
Etc...
Canada
Mexico
Hawaii
US Virgin Islands
Bahamas
Puerto Rico
Etc...
02 May 2001, 03:14 PM
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Bros,
Are you talking about the America with the worst incidence of obesity in the world? The America with the biggest disparity between rich and poor anywhere in the world? The America where only those can afford health care get it? (I'd rather have to wait than to get none at all!) The America where there is some of the worst social unrest due to racial conflict in the western world?
The average income in the US is <B> lower </B> than the UK. The income per capita is higher only due to the extraordinary amount of millionaires. As usual, the top 5% of the population hold 85% of the wealth.
Oh, and they killed the only UK troops to lose their lives in the Gulf War and they they think they saved us from Germany in WWII.
I rest my arrogant case.
Geezer
Are you talking about the America with the worst incidence of obesity in the world? The America with the biggest disparity between rich and poor anywhere in the world? The America where only those can afford health care get it? (I'd rather have to wait than to get none at all!) The America where there is some of the worst social unrest due to racial conflict in the western world?
The average income in the US is <B> lower </B> than the UK. The income per capita is higher only due to the extraordinary amount of millionaires. As usual, the top 5% of the population hold 85% of the wealth.
Oh, and they killed the only UK troops to lose their lives in the Gulf War and they they think they saved us from Germany in WWII.
I rest my arrogant case.
Geezer
02 May 2001, 03:26 PM
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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jerome:
<B>I was talking to my Canadian girlfriend a while ago and she mentioned that US Citizens can travel to the following (& maybe more) places without a passport...
Canada
Mexico
Hawaii
US Virgin Islands
Bahamas
Puerto Rico
Etc...
[/quote]
Jerome, let's just take these one at a time....
Canada - America without the pollution
Mexico - Any of the southern states but with pesos instead of dollars and a bit more dust
Hawaii - A US state
US Virgin Islands - US owned territory just off the US coast
Bahamas - Part US controlled just off the US coast
Puerto Rico - US controlled island recently applied to become a US state
Hardly qualify as wildly foreign experiences for a US citizen do they
Geezer
<B>I was talking to my Canadian girlfriend a while ago and she mentioned that US Citizens can travel to the following (& maybe more) places without a passport...
Canada
Mexico
Hawaii
US Virgin Islands
Bahamas
Puerto Rico
Etc...
[/quote]
Jerome, let's just take these one at a time....
Canada - America without the pollution
Mexico - Any of the southern states but with pesos instead of dollars and a bit more dust
Hawaii - A US state
US Virgin Islands - US owned territory just off the US coast
Bahamas - Part US controlled just off the US coast
Puerto Rico - US controlled island recently applied to become a US state
Hardly qualify as wildly foreign experiences for a US citizen do they
Geezer
02 May 2001, 05:02 PM
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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Geezer:
<B>Bros,
Are you talking about the America with the worst incidence of obesity in the world? The America with the biggest disparity between rich and poor anywhere in the world? The America where only those can afford health care get it? (I'd rather have to wait than to get none at all!) The America where there is some of the worst social unrest due to racial conflict in the western world?
The average income in the US is lower </B> than the UK. The income per capita is higher only due to the extraordinary amount of millionaires. As usual, the top 5% of the population hold 85% of the wealth.
Oh, and they killed the only UK troops to lose their lives in the Gulf War and they they think they saved us from Germany in WWII.
I rest my arrogant case.
Geezer<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Geezer,
Without wishing to drag this into an “I’m right, you’re wrong” tit-for-tat debate, my point was that although America has a great number of faults, we are in no position to accuse them of arrogance. We don’t live in some beautiful crime-free paradise, do we?
A couple of points which may interest you:
· The average income (the definition of which is exactly the same as per capita income, by the way) is way higher in the States. It was was US$31,500 in 1999, whereas in the UK it was US$21,500. They were second (to Luxembourg), we were 20th.
· The biggest disparity between rich and poor is actually in Brazil, or at least it was in 1999. The top 10% took 47.9%, the bottom 10% just 0.8%. There are many countries like this (Kenya, Zimbabwe, Colombia), but the US comes 41st, with the top 10% taking 28.5% and the bottom 10% taking 1.5%. The UK comes 56th, with comparable figures of 24.7% and 2.4%.
· In a very real sense, they DID save us from Germany in WWII. The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 meant that they transferred billions (even at WWII prices) to the UK so that we had the materials to fight the war, without which we’d have been stuffed. Whilst I accept that it took Pearl Harbour to actually get them into the war, the fact remains that America sent us a total of around US$30 billion of goods, of which we only paid back around US$5billion. Bear in mind also that a lot of American soldiers died in Europe during WWII, when their country was never threatened by Germany. They could have sat the whole thing out, but chose not to.
I take your point about the the US health service, but then they pay less in tax and just provide for their health service privately rather than publicly. The interesting thing is the proportion of total GDP (i.e.whether private or public) which is spent on health, which is very similar for the UK and US. Incidentally, their health service (in particular for cancer sufferers), is MUCH better than ours. There's a free service (Medicare) for those who really can't afford health insurance, though I'm not sure I'd care to try it.
I'm no apologist for the US regime - their actions in Nicaragua were despicable, and they supported Saddam Hussein for years, to mention just two - but that's the state rather than the people.
I've never found Americans (and I've worked with them for many years) to be much different from us. The only major differences being that they are politically to the right of us, are more religious, struggle to understand the concept of irony, and have a laughable fondness for the American flag.
And before anyone points out that they consume a great percentage of the world's oil supplies, let's get real - this is ScoobyNet, land of the sub-20mpg car!
Bros
[This message has been edited by bros (edited 02 May 2001).]
<B>Bros,
Are you talking about the America with the worst incidence of obesity in the world? The America with the biggest disparity between rich and poor anywhere in the world? The America where only those can afford health care get it? (I'd rather have to wait than to get none at all!) The America where there is some of the worst social unrest due to racial conflict in the western world?
The average income in the US is lower </B> than the UK. The income per capita is higher only due to the extraordinary amount of millionaires. As usual, the top 5% of the population hold 85% of the wealth.
Oh, and they killed the only UK troops to lose their lives in the Gulf War and they they think they saved us from Germany in WWII.
I rest my arrogant case.
Geezer<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Geezer,
Without wishing to drag this into an “I’m right, you’re wrong” tit-for-tat debate, my point was that although America has a great number of faults, we are in no position to accuse them of arrogance. We don’t live in some beautiful crime-free paradise, do we?
A couple of points which may interest you:
· The average income (the definition of which is exactly the same as per capita income, by the way) is way higher in the States. It was was US$31,500 in 1999, whereas in the UK it was US$21,500. They were second (to Luxembourg), we were 20th.
· The biggest disparity between rich and poor is actually in Brazil, or at least it was in 1999. The top 10% took 47.9%, the bottom 10% just 0.8%. There are many countries like this (Kenya, Zimbabwe, Colombia), but the US comes 41st, with the top 10% taking 28.5% and the bottom 10% taking 1.5%. The UK comes 56th, with comparable figures of 24.7% and 2.4%.
· In a very real sense, they DID save us from Germany in WWII. The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 meant that they transferred billions (even at WWII prices) to the UK so that we had the materials to fight the war, without which we’d have been stuffed. Whilst I accept that it took Pearl Harbour to actually get them into the war, the fact remains that America sent us a total of around US$30 billion of goods, of which we only paid back around US$5billion. Bear in mind also that a lot of American soldiers died in Europe during WWII, when their country was never threatened by Germany. They could have sat the whole thing out, but chose not to.
I take your point about the the US health service, but then they pay less in tax and just provide for their health service privately rather than publicly. The interesting thing is the proportion of total GDP (i.e.whether private or public) which is spent on health, which is very similar for the UK and US. Incidentally, their health service (in particular for cancer sufferers), is MUCH better than ours. There's a free service (Medicare) for those who really can't afford health insurance, though I'm not sure I'd care to try it.
I'm no apologist for the US regime - their actions in Nicaragua were despicable, and they supported Saddam Hussein for years, to mention just two - but that's the state rather than the people.
I've never found Americans (and I've worked with them for many years) to be much different from us. The only major differences being that they are politically to the right of us, are more religious, struggle to understand the concept of irony, and have a laughable fondness for the American flag.
And before anyone points out that they consume a great percentage of the world's oil supplies, let's get real - this is ScoobyNet, land of the sub-20mpg car!
Bros
[This message has been edited by bros (edited 02 May 2001).]