BS: A World without America

06 Mar 07 - 07:57 AM (#1988022)
Subject: BS: A World without America
From: Paco Rabanne

Hola from sunny Hull,
                                     go onto you- tube and look for "A World Without America" It's a spoof news item about how the world could have been over the last fifty years if America hadn't existed. It's currently driving A Grauniad writer mad on the Jeremy Vine show on BBC radio 2.
          Flamenco, the true path!

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06 Mar 07 - 08:56 AM (#1988073)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: The Fooles Troupe

""A World Without America" "

I must be dreaming...

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06 Mar 07 - 10:26 AM (#1988167)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Richard Bridge

If the rumours about the next great crash turn out to be well-founded, we may find out.

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06 Mar 07 - 12:28 PM (#1988313)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

Great crashes of financial constructs do not remove nations, their lands, resources, wide-open spaces, homes or buildings, erase their highways or melt their pipes. There is a REAL place, as well as your fanciful cyber-world one, called America. ANd it is -- as a place -- doing as well as may be expected under the circumstances.

A

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06 Mar 07 - 12:30 PM (#1988316)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: beardedbruce

"how the world could have been over the last fifty years if America hadn't existed. "

Does this mean America was here for WW II? If not, some of us would be speaking German, and others would be dead.

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06 Mar 07 - 12:32 PM (#1988319)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Peace

Lots of people died to defend the world in that war. America did its share.

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06 Mar 07 - 12:37 PM (#1988335)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

Here is a link using simple HTML techniques.


A

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06 Mar 07 - 12:42 PM (#1988345)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: beardedbruce

Would the Allies have been victorious without US industry to supply them?

I DO NOT state that ONLY the US won WW II: But without the supplies produced here, would it have been possible for the Allies to win?

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06 Mar 07 - 01:04 PM (#1988365)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Peace

I could counter that by saying if the Nazis hadbn't been drained by their attack on Russia, they would have been too strong to have been defeated by America's late entry into the war. There are lotsa whatifs, BB. I did not intend to start a Third World War on this thread.

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06 Mar 07 - 01:10 PM (#1988373)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Wesley S

Try reading "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K Dick.

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06 Mar 07 - 01:30 PM (#1988409)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,mg

50 years ago WWII was over. Cold war was up and running. mg

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06 Mar 07 - 01:55 PM (#1988426)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: dianavan

Exactly right, Mary.

No need to bring the World War II into the discussion.

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06 Mar 07 - 03:22 PM (#1988521)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Folk Form # 1

America, one of Britain's finest inventions.

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06 Mar 07 - 03:22 PM (#1988522)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,Seiri Omaar

This offends me. If America hadn't been around, that doesn't mean someone else wouldn't have made medical advances, or stepped up to defend in wars. What a glaring bit of unnecessary glorification.
And I'd get into the bit about a poorer world, but I value my blood pressure.

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06 Mar 07 - 03:26 PM (#1988532)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: beardedbruce

Just trying to understand the program. Is it that America never existed, or that it ceased to exist 50 years ago?

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06 Mar 07 - 04:21 PM (#1988605)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

Take it any way you like; I think it is silly chauvinistic hypothetical foolery.


A

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06 Mar 07 - 04:37 PM (#1988622)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,lox

I'm with Amos!

I would add that the video is patronizing, shallow, poorly advised and weak propaganda.

It comes across like one of these corporate inspirational/feel good films that staff have to watch to feel loyal to the company they work for.

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06 Mar 07 - 05:26 PM (#1988684)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Scoville

As sick as I am of everyone bitching about America (35% approval rating people! Our dysfunctional government no longer represents the will of our people), I have to say: What a lot of simplistic, fear-mongering, crap. Do people not have anything better to do with their time that produce ridiculous web videos like this? Or pass it around the Internet? It doesn't even make sense.

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06 Mar 07 - 07:18 PM (#1988826)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Richard Bridge

As Bob Dylan said?

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06 Mar 07 - 07:22 PM (#1988835)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,heric

Don't criticize what you can't understand?

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06 Mar 07 - 07:22 PM (#1988836)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Peace

Haul on the bowline, he sang that melody,
Like all tough sailors do when they're far away at sea.

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06 Mar 07 - 07:23 PM (#1988838)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

Oh, the tedium.

I wonder if Adolf Hitler ever commissioned a similarly cheery little film entitled "A World Without Germany", just to remind everyone in the Reich and elsewhere how very, very lucky they were to have the Nazis?

Sounds like just the sort of thing Goebbels would have enjoyed putting together.

Come to think of it, I bet Joe Stalin would have liked this approach to using film to get the message across too, not to mention Chairman Mao. Perfect Red Guard stuff. "A World Without Mao"...mmm-mmm-yummy! Get all the kids to watch it and wave little red, white, and blue flags enthusiastically.

God...we are sooooooo lucky to have "A World With America", aren't we? ;-)

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06 Mar 07 - 07:34 PM (#1988859)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,heric

(Thanks, Peace)

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06 Mar 07 - 07:36 PM (#1988862)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: number 6

A salute of my appreciation to your post also Peace.

biLL

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06 Mar 07 - 07:40 PM (#1988874)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: robomatic

The instructor assigned his class to write a treatise on the elephant:

The Englishman wrote: Elephant Hunting.

The Frenchman wrote: The Love Life of The Elephant.

The German wrote: Introduction to the Bibliography of the Study of The Elephant.

The American wrote: Breeding Bigger & Better Elephants.

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06 Mar 07 - 07:43 PM (#1988880)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

"some of us would be speaking German"

Yeah? Are the Germans speaking English? Were the East Germans speaking Russian before the Wall came down? Are the Iraqis speaking Ay-Murican?

It ain't as easy as you think to get other nations of people to give up their langauges just because you score a temporary military victory over them.

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06 Mar 07 - 07:48 PM (#1988884)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: number 6

"It ain't as easy as you think to get other nations of people to give up their langauges just because you score a temporary military victory over them."

Now ... let's get away from 'Germany' and the U.S.A for a bit and reflect on that statement and how it can be applie to Canada.

biLL

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06 Mar 07 - 07:49 PM (#1988888)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Peace

We a bunch of Dylan fans or what?

You know, I happen to love the USA (don't tell Dickey). I hate Washington and its politics with something akin to a passion, but I feel like that about Ottawa, too. The American people are so much like Canucks that after two beers you can't really tell them apart. (Well, Canadians are better looking, but the US has more basketball teams.) The people I met in my years there were wonderful. I had the privilege of travelling all over the place in the US and I made some friends I have to this day. A world without America is one of those execrcises in rewriting history that I have never liked, and it ranks right up there with, "If the dinosaurs had survived, what would . . .?" Fact is, they didn't. The world we have is right now the ONLY one we have. People all over it are gonna have to learn to get along. We owe the US a great deal, and when its political leadership is pissing in the swimming pool, it's very easy to use the term American when what we mean is Government. I have no wish to insult Americans because of their idiot President or dictatorial foreign policies. Ther are too many good folks out there who feel much the same. In the United States.

As heric pointed out, "The Times They Are A Changin'", and I think my neighbours to the south are mostly happy about that. I know I am.

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06 Mar 07 - 07:52 PM (#1988892)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: number 6

I think "all politiks aside" the world owes a lot to the U.S.A.

biLL

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06 Mar 07 - 07:54 PM (#1988898)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Big Al Whittle

it would be bloody long way to Japan. I doubt if we would have bothered.

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06 Mar 07 - 10:22 PM (#1989019)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

I think the world owes a lot to its bravest, most adventuresome, ground breaking folks, the bright, the bold, the experimenters and the pathfinders in any domain. If a number of them happen to be Americans, well and good. The ones that are Americans owe a lot to the Irish, English, French, Arabic, Greek and Egyptian. Good people tunr out good stuff wherever they be.

That's my two cents.


A

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06 Mar 07 - 10:29 PM (#1989027)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

It's mutual. The world owes a lot to the USA. The USA owes a lot to the world. ;-)

Without the world, after all, there'd BE no USA!

Yeah, Number 6, in Canada's case the French may have lost the war way back in the 1760's...but I note that they are still speaking French! ;-) This is why I snicker and cough whenever people trot out that tired old cliche "If....(whatever).......you'd all be speaking German!" Bull.

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06 Mar 07 - 10:46 PM (#1989039)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: number 6

I pointed that out cause I was in agreement with ya LH.

biLL

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06 Mar 07 - 11:13 PM (#1989058)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

Yeah, I figured you were.

Conquering empires usually overestimate their ability to replace an existing culture with their own. ;-)

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07 Mar 07 - 02:45 AM (#1989115)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

No Big Macs with fries. No Budweiser. No levis. No rap music, No monster trucks.

What a horrible world

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07 Mar 07 - 05:15 AM (#1989212)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: John Hardly

No blues or rock and roll. I'd tell you all to go to hell, but you'd already be there.

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07 Mar 07 - 07:41 AM (#1989296)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: The Fooles Troupe

"it would be bloody long way to Japan. I doubt if we would have bothered. "

Didn't you know the place is absolutely stacked underground with gold and precious minerals?

Oh, sorry wrong thread...

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07 Mar 07 - 10:16 AM (#1989474)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

No Jerry Lewis. Ho Howard Stern. No Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. No "Survivor" shows. No "Gilligan's Island" or "Three's Company". No Ku Klux Klan. No Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly and Prohibition.

Hmmm.

Can we rethink this proposition? ;-)

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07 Mar 07 - 10:29 AM (#1989497)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

No Jefferson, Walt Whitman, Faulkner or Warren or Hemingway or Sandburg, no Fords or pickup trucks, no Crospby Stills and Nash or Original Dillards, no Bo Diddley or Satchmo, Bessie Smith or blues at all. No Thornton WIlder or ALexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, Buick or Mark Twain, Henry James, Bret Harte, and Kate Chopin. An absence of Frank Lloyd Wright, American Impressionism, Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and E.E. Cummings. A world without banjos and Martins, hot dogs or autoharps.

Gawd, what a dreary, sorry notion!!!

A

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07 Mar 07 - 10:39 AM (#1989511)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Mooh

I will live and die a peaceful white Canadian Chistian male, no amount of jingoistic posturing by under-informed or ill-educated internet posters will have any effect on me or my beliefs, except to make me more commited in the face of such cyber excrement.

Normally I ignore these discussions but for heaven's sake, "a world without" applies to every nation, culture, religion, colour, sex, law, you name it. Virtually everything has a list of pros and cons, its supporters and its opposition...but what's important is what we're doing to improve the world in spite of it all. What are we doing about hunger, poverty, pollution, environmental destruction, war, prejudice, intolerance, and hate?

Want to keep score? The fucking game isn't over yet. What are we doing about hunger, poverty, pollution, environmental destruction, war, prejudice, intolerance, and hate?

Peace, Mooh.

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07 Mar 07 - 11:42 AM (#1989577)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Bill D

What if we had a world without silly rhetorical questions and speculation?

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07 Mar 07 - 11:44 AM (#1989582)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

No Internet. No global warming. No E-meters. No downfall of the USSR.

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07 Mar 07 - 12:51 PM (#1989629)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Scoville

No Big Macs with fries. No Budweiser.

What, because the UK is known for its fine cuisine? (I can't argue with the beer thing, though. Most mass-market beer over here is crap.)

The world would be significantly different if any country had ceased to exist 50 years before any given point in time. Ask an Indonesian what the world would be like without the Dutch, or an Australian aboriginal without the British, or . . . you get the picture. The U.S. is neither the first nor the only country to invade a country and do horrible things to native populations. As with every other country, some of our contributions have been good and some not, but that's the way the ball bounces.

I'm with Amos 10:22 p.m. above--as the Spanish say, "A good horse is never a bad color."

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07 Mar 07 - 01:06 PM (#1989650)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,Crazyhorse

Amos
Graham Nash & Thomas Paine, American?

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07 Mar 07 - 01:14 PM (#1989660)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,mg

I will live and die a peaceful white Canadian Chistian male, no amount of jingoistic posturing by under-informed or ill-educated internet posters will have any effect on me or my beliefs, except to make me more commited in the face of such cyber excrement.



Is not the above a somewhat hateful statement...or at least a bit holier than thou?

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07 Mar 07 - 01:31 PM (#1989674)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

Thomas Paine was one of the founding lights of the Revolution, CH. As American as anyone, even if he was born abroad... ;>)

CSN was an American phenom, even if one of its members was an import. Its the spirit of the thing, you see.


A

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07 Mar 07 - 01:35 PM (#1989676)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,Crazyhorse

Amos, you missed out 80% of that band; Neil Young

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07 Mar 07 - 02:06 PM (#1989703)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

"What if we had a world without silly rhetorical questions and speculation?" - Bill D

Even more disturbing than that, Bill D........what about a world without....you and me!????!!!!

It's just unthinkable.

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07 Mar 07 - 02:30 PM (#1989724)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

I saw the play "Citizen Tom Paine" at the Kennedy Center played by Richard Thomas. Cracking.

In one scene he was trying to flick one of those sticky boogers off of his finger.

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07 Mar 07 - 03:09 PM (#1989774)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

I know how he feels. At least some of these threads make me feel that way.


A

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07 Mar 07 - 05:54 PM (#1989963)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Mooh

mg...Now you're getting it! LOL!

Peace, Mooh.

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07 Mar 07 - 08:50 PM (#1990112)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Bert

A World without America would be a world without Mudcat!!!

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07 Mar 07 - 08:55 PM (#1990116)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Mooh

mg...By the way, please don't confuse offense with hate. As for holier than thou...aren't we all to some extent? The original video in question is perhaps a good example, however misdirected. But that's part of the issue, folks need to get over themselves, and get over each other, and solve the real problems.

Peace, Mooh.

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07 Mar 07 - 10:59 PM (#1990169)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

Where would those Geese go to crap in the winter?

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07 Mar 07 - 11:08 PM (#1990174)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Peace

The head goose (here's his picture) has agreed that you are gonna be in deep deep doodoo if you slag Canada again. Look at the bare spot. There was a three-bedroom house there once. The goose? HE did that. It's our only secret weapon, and it flies under the radar.

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08 Mar 07 - 10:53 AM (#1990519)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST

As A Canadian and a neighbour of America, I am sometimes, frightened, appalled, bored and amazed by America. However, I also admire, respect, am awed, surprised and heartened by that country. We all have faults and America is no exception but I cringe to think where the world would be without this vibrant and intriguing country. As for America as a neighbour...thank god for it when you think who it might be.

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08 Mar 07 - 11:56 AM (#1990578)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Big Al Whittle

yeh if you were English, you'd have to put up with Irish - always dancing jigs and digging up the road.

the welsh singing in choirs and stopping talking when you walk in the room.

the scottish - well you've seen Billy Connolly.

AND the French - a gang of wine swigging sex maniacs.

count yourself extremely lucky.

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08 Mar 07 - 11:59 AM (#1990580)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: beardedbruce

Well, in the US we have Democrats and Republicans- Canada has Shatner.

No wonder they envy the US.

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08 Mar 07 - 12:21 PM (#1990595)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST

we don't envy you, you have budweiser, anna nicole and paris hilton.

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08 Mar 07 - 12:24 PM (#1990598)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: beardedbruce

"we don't envy you, you have budweiser, anna nicole and paris hilton."

"anna nicole "

Not any more.


And budweiser is ok to boil crabs in. (Cheasapeake blue crabs, anyway)


You got me on Paris Hilton: But compared with SHATNER???

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08 Mar 07 - 12:31 PM (#1990607)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

If you were American, you'd have to put up with Mexicans slipping across the border illegaly, working dirt cheap, ruining the labor market for legals and usurping the resources of the legal citizens.

All with the politicians wink and nod.

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08 Mar 07 - 12:32 PM (#1990608)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST

Shatner at least did something to become famous. I think America is perhaps one of the few places where you can become famous for no reason.

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08 Mar 07 - 12:39 PM (#1990613)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,heric

If you were American, you'd get the benefit of Mexicans slipping across the border illegally to work hard, for very little, keeping costs down, while taking all the risks of arbitrary and capricious law enforcement. All while the politicians wink and nod.

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08 Mar 07 - 01:29 PM (#1990665)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

The only thing I envy the USA for, BB, is the warmer weather in the more southerly regions. ;-) And I'm serious about that. I don't care much for cold weather.

Remember, I have lived in both Canada and the USA. All things considered, I prefer Canada. But the COLD!!!! Ouch.

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08 Mar 07 - 01:36 PM (#1990670)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

If you were Mexican, you would not be able to slip illegally across the border to work dirt cheap in America, ruin the labor market for your bretheren living there legally, usurp their resources and send the illbegotten money back home to prop up your own corruption ridden government.

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08 Mar 07 - 01:40 PM (#1990673)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

Say what? Jyou talkin' to ME, Gringo???    ;-)

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08 Mar 07 - 01:59 PM (#1990688)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,heric

But they're not trying to prop up a corrupt government, they are trying to do what is best for their familes, while working very hard and enduring significant risks to do it. I'll agree with you that the US government shouldn't tacitly condone the way this labor market works, and I'll agree with you that the government in Mexico is broken and corrupt - I just don't think you should have animosity or encourage animosity against individuals trying to do the best they can.

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08 Mar 07 - 02:00 PM (#1990691)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: beardedbruce

Well, this morning in Frederick MD (at the airport) it was 1 degree F at 6:30. By 8:30, it was 30 degrees F.

Remember, this is Maryland, south of the Mason Dixon line.

Friends in NY state had a high of 18 F yesterday.

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08 Mar 07 - 02:45 PM (#1990722)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Greg B

It seems to me that history will judge America as a necessary
ingredient in the political and social transformation of the
latter part of the 2nd millenium AD.

Certainly the idea of 'government by the consent of the governed'
wasn't invented over here. Equally certainly, it gained traction
here at a rate and in a way which might have been impossible or
at least very difficult in Europe due things like per-capita
resources and space, geography, and a few dozen other factors
that mitigated against the success of something like the American
Revolution. Recall that even the French Revolution faltered
significantly, and gave the world Bonaparte...

I certainly don't think that it says anything about the relative
qualities of the population of the New World vs. the Old World. It
does say a great deal about the differences in the circumstances
of those two populatons. Even after the better part of a couple
of centuries of Europeans having a toe-hold, this was very much
a 'resource rich' and 'opportunity rich' environment.

To put it another way, America has been a 'proving ground' for all
sorts of 'nutty ideas,' some of which have worked out quite well for
the world as a whole. I much prefer that way of looking at it to
some lofty idea of this being the annointed place, the home of
the brave, the patriotic, virtuous, etc.

It's a place of extremes--- witness how polarized our politics are.

A place of absolutes 'either you're with us or against us' views.

Sometimes that works favorably--- for example, Americans tend to
be quite absolutist about civil rights. Our mind-set is that 'free
speech' actually extends well past what's actually in the First
Amendment to the Bill of Rights. But especially in terms of what's
really there, it's very absolute. It's really hard to make a case
to compromise it here--- even if it's offensive speech. By the same
token, to most American minds the idea that women or girls might
not be able to wear head-scarves at work or school or in public
is just not even worthy of consideration.

Then again, many Americans also think that the Bill of Rights gives us the right (or even a duty) to own a machine gun :-)

America really is the crucible of Christian fundamentalism. They
came over here from Europe in the 15th-19th centuries and haven't
slowed down since.

It's a land of contradictions, then--- the same people who are rabid
about their constitutional freedom to practice their own religion
are equally rabid about it being okay to impose their views on what
women should do with their own wombs or to pray in schools or to
teach 'intelligent design' as an alternative to Darwin in same.

If the World didn't have an America--- they'd have to invent one.

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08 Mar 07 - 03:14 PM (#1990747)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

Your redneck voice is really dyed-in-the-wool, huh, Dickey? Pardon the mixed metaphor. I have seen a few of these (make Fox noises here) illegal immigrants (end Fox noises) and what I have seen is individuals who will work their buns off, and do, for the sake of making some headway in life and helping their mothers and wives back home. None of them has ever voiced any interest in propping up a corrupt government. None of the ones I have known had any ill-begootten funds -- every penny of it was earned with honorable sweat and usually very good work, too. I know of no resources anyof them usurped, except perhaps driving on AMerican highways and occasionally getting a glass of water. These are guys who are fighting for a decent living and doing anything asked of them to earn it honestly. They have more honor among them, in many cases, then any of the scuzzballs you worship in the halls of Gummint. And they produce value rather than destruction, unlike your lot.

A

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08 Mar 07 - 03:33 PM (#1990762)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

No Scientology or Dianentics to keep people sane.

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08 Mar 07 - 03:36 PM (#1990766)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: KB in Iowa

Exactly, Ebbie. If the companies that hired illegals were prosecuted (and punished in a meaningful way) for doing so the situation would end, at least as a major issue. They only come because they know there are jobs here.

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08 Mar 07 - 03:42 PM (#1990774)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Amos

Gee, Dickhead, you sound a little desperate there.

A

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08 Mar 07 - 03:48 PM (#1990781)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: beardedbruce

Amos,

"Dickhead "?

Chill out.

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09 Mar 07 - 08:16 AM (#1991349)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,Bardan

"It's a place of extremes--- witness how polarized our politics are"

yeah, there's the right and the really extreme right.

*prepares for righteous smiting*

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09 Mar 07 - 08:17 AM (#1991353)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: beardedbruce

You forgot the left and the left out...

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09 Mar 07 - 11:51 PM (#1992250)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

No

I like to be in America!
O.K. by me in America!
Ev'rything free in America
For a small fee in America!

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09 Mar 07 - 11:54 PM (#1992253)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: The Fooles Troupe

There's no left left in the USA...

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10 Mar 07 - 02:11 AM (#1992300)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

If you watch the original West Side Story, Dickey, you will note that that song had a satirical bite to it. The Puerto Rican girls were singing merrily about the stuff they liked in America....then the Puerto Rican guys would respond, sarcastically, "for a small fee in America"...implying that things were not exactly a bed of roses for Hispanics like themselves who were rather toward the lower end of the social pecking order in America. It was a juxtaposition of the irony of being poverty-stricken in the midst of the most affluent society on Earth....and with references back to the even worse poverty they had tried to escape back home in Puerto Rico...but they found the bitter taste of it again in the slums of New York.

This aspect was completely lost on my upstate New York high school, however. ;-) I was in the chorus and we did a medley of songs from West Side Story. We sang "I Like To Be in America" totally upbeat and enthusiastic on every line....no sarcastic bite at all in the phrase "for a small fee"...no, everything was apparently just absolutely wonderful and ideal for everyone in America according to my high school. Heh! There was a real little white bread town...no slums to be seen, and no Hispanics or Black people either. I had no idea that the song had a double message until I saw the movie some years later.

This is how the sharper messages in art get watered down and de-fanged as time goes by as they are absorbed into a not very analytical mainstream. How many people still realize that "This Land Is Your Land" was originally a song of angry protest and defiance by Woody Guthrie, who sang it in defence of America's poor and disenfranchised in those hard years of dust bowl and depression?

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10 Mar 07 - 03:53 PM (#1992850)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: RangerSteve

Without the U.S., Canadians wouldn't be able to drive to Mexico, they'd have to fly or sail. Leif Erikson and Columbus might have just sailed right on past and into the Pacific. And the remaining Americas might not be discovered by Europeans for a long time, maybe long after Amerigo Vespucci died, leaving it to be named by someone else, possibly someone named Huffington Spootwanger. How'd you Canadians like to have to say that you lived on the continent of North Spootwanger? William Shatner might remain unknown, thereby leaving a lot of blank spaces on the Mudcat thread list. No, wait, there wouldn't be a Mudcat, and you wouldn't be wasting your time reading this carp that I just wrote, and your lives would be better for that. Ignore this.

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10 Mar 07 - 07:05 PM (#1993014)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: McGrath of Harlow

Neither Leif Eriksen nor Columbus ever got any near the territories that later became the USA. I imahine so far as the rest of the Americas were concerend it wouldn't really have made a great deal of difference if those territories had all been under water, up until the 19th century.

Take the USA out of the picture and it would meant most of the people who emigrated, including political dissidents, would have stayed home, and Europe would have had a very different history. Imagining a world without the USA but with everything else the same - Stalin, and Margaret Thatcher is just lazy alternative history.

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10 Mar 07 - 08:50 PM (#1993085)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Dickey

LH:

You should see the movie Bound For Glory if you haven't all ready.

Yess I realize the argument was going both ways in West Side Story. When I was writing that post I suddenly realized when I was beating on Bobert about his statement about so many American living in 3rd world conditions I dod not think about PR. There are some 3rd world conditions there but hopefully not as bad or extensive as other countries in the Caribbean.


BUT, with out America there would be no Jay and the Americans singing:

Only in America
Can a guy from anywhere
Go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire

Only in America
Can a kid without a cent
Get a break and maybe grow up to be President

Only in America
Land of opportunity, yeah
Would a classy girl like you fall for a poor boy like me

Only in America
Can a kid who's washin' cars
Take a giant step and reach right up and touch the stars

Only in America
Could a dream like this come true
Could a guy like me start with nothing and end up with you

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10 Mar 07 - 09:39 PM (#1993116)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: GUEST,meself

Umm - the song from West Side Story seems a little more realistic to me ...

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11 Mar 07 - 01:28 PM (#1993497)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: McGrath of Harlow

Can a guy from anywhere
Go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire

Only in America? Or any other place where there's a lottery...

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11 Mar 07 - 01:57 PM (#1993529)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Little Hawk

I have seen "Bound For Glory", Dickey, and I really enjoyed it. Wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime.

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11 Mar 07 - 05:46 PM (#1993681)
Subject: RE: BS: A World without America
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T

"Do people not have anything better to do with their time than produce ridiculous web videos like this? Or pass it around the Internet? It doesn't even make sense."

It's not even the right question, since it relates to the putative absence of America, which would have left sea levels drastically lower, and incidentally given Christopher Columbus' navigation skills a boost.

The question should have related, not to America, nor to the American people, but to the corrupt political Administration under which they are currently unfortunate enough to be suffering, and this has only become a serious issue in the last ten yeard or so.

I tend toward treating the whole thing as it deserves, and ignoring it. There are some irritations that are unworthy of the effort required to scratch them.

Don T.

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