How do we get Europe to like us?

The BBQ Pit
41

Yup. Which is more or less what I said; and it won’t work until we stop treating it as a scheme to make profit and start treating it as a service to make/keep people well (you know, like back in the days when it did work).

Yup. There are also those over here that think all we have to do is copy the Americans and everything will be wonderful, they are wrong too. Imitation/Inspiration

Why should I think that of you? You’re obviously a fine example of a culture-embracing broadminded freethinker.:rolleyes:

[sub](how on earth did I get sucked into all this?)[/sub]

42

Have you ever been to Europe or are you just talking out your asshole? A few months ago I spent four weeks touring Germany, Amsterdam (which I agree that it is gorgeous!), Paris, Milano, Rome, and London. Every place we went was amazing and impressive and full of history, but even more so the people were great. Most particular, the European Dopers from this very board (Coldie, London Calling, fierra, kferr, Twisty, Spiny. The Americans were great too. :D).

They were kind and fun and really went out of their way to ensure that us visitors had a great time :::insert Shayna/Spiny joke here::: None of them were stinky :rolleyes: and none of them had bad teeth :rolleyes: in fact, L_C has a great smile and as far as I know, none of them kill babies or the disabled. :rolleyes:

The only time I smelled B.O. was standing near an American tourist in the Louvre. The food was great (although I have yet to convince L_C that pork and beans are for summer picnics to be eaten with potato salad and steak and NOT for breakfast! :D) I didn’t see any rioting Asians.

I would go on, but it is hard to break into full flame mode when the recipient is obviously a bigotted dumbass who wouldn’t comprehend.

Just take your bullshit elsewhere, you little freak.

I agree with L_C, you are pathetic and ignorant and it is really sad that with your attitude you will never actually “see” the world for what it has to offer. It’s too bad, because you are missing a lot.

I asked this in the pub in Amsterdam and I’m still waiting for tghe answer. Just how much to the WOMEN have to pay for the privilege? :wink:

goboy - You forgot J. The Ann Frank House.

43

At the time? I’m guessing you haven’t seen the new photos that are being passed around, eh?

44

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by puddleglum *
UK- I think through a combination of gun laws and lax policing we could reverse the falling crime rate and get it back up to where the UK’s is.

Check

I think that if we systematically attacked our medical system we could in a few short years be suffering from the same shortages and poor quality as the HMS.

Check. Sounds like what’s happening to Medicare/Medicaid to me.

I also think that without too much difficulty we could convince our Asian communities to start rioting.

Check, although we seem to prefer to anger our African American population instead.

We could also wage campaigns against modern dentistry and food that has taste.

Check. Plenty of bad teeth here. Can you say Big Mac?

Also I am sure that there are many people who could be convinced to beat up foreigners outside of soccer games.

Check. Wear a Raiders jersey to a Chiefs home game.

We could start paying our farmers huge amounts of money to be less efficient

Check. I thought we invented this practice.

We could start paying our directors to produce movies no one wants to see and our authors to write books no one wants to read.

You mean like Battlefield Earth?

We could spend huge amounts of government money to build grotesquely ugly buildings.

Check. We’ve got this one down to a fine science.

We could elect corrupt officials who use slush funds to enrich themselves at public expense.

Check. It’s called lobbying.

If a smaller neighbors has an election whose results we don’t like we can bully them until they submit.

Check. Again, we seem to be the masters in this category. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that many nations have a problem with us, mostly due to our meddling in other nations affairs.

…we can then convince them to shave their heads and attack foreigners.

Nah, we just convince them to attack gays, people of other ethnicities, Planned Parenthood buildings, churches, etc.

We can legalize drugs and prostitution and turn our biggest city into an internationally reknowned cesspool.

Or, we can make drugs and prostitution illegal and have multiple internationally reknowned cesspools.

Now there may be Americans who think this is not a good idea, but in the new America what the people want doesn’t matter, only the bureaucratic elite will be trusted to run the country.

When you said bureaucratic elite, did you actually mean bigots such as yourself?:putz:

Hell, I kind of like America. I also have fond memories of Europe. Squishy-scrotum bigots the world over make me sick. Even the ones in my own backyard.

45

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by goboy *
**

You should definately see the red light district’s farthest street… Full of very, VERY nice men. Ofcourse, they’re gonna cost ya :smiley:

46

You know who we need here? Redboss. He’s very good at tearing people like puddleglum to pieces. Redboss, where are you? :slight_smile:

Fran

47

Thanks for those stats DMC, it’s been a while since I added anything to my IE favourites :smiley:

48

Well, if ** puddles ** just wants Europe to like the American President, what we should have done is to elect someone who wasn’t an idiot to the office.

49

Maybe a whole new tread should be started on The Netherlands.

We could be flamed for so many things, my non-exhaustive list:
Use and rules regarding abortion, marihuana, gay marriage, euthanasia, the practise of condoning illegal acts, drinking from the age of 16, the very mild penal climate, high taxes, polder model, ridiculisation of creationists, etc. etc.

Our frame of mind whereby we seem to need to wag our finger at the rest of the world for not following our enlightened and successful paths :wink:
(Recent examples: abortion boat and not to forget our audacity to call the US president a man with limited mental ability.)

50

Ah, a whole new Dutchman here, we were in need of those. Welcome to the boards F-Dutchman.

51

Whoops, major blunder here. Only now see that you already registered in November. Duh!..

52

If anyone actually believes this, then you’re cordially invited to take your head out of the bucket and look around.
This seems like one of the most blantant generalizations I’ve seen in a while, and smacks of someone who digests their McPaper with their McMeal and goes to their McJob nattering about how great the US is and shoudn’t everyone try to be like us.

Wake up.

The US has about 4-5% unemployment and jobless claims are steadily increasing. They’ve been doing so for a year. Most people who want to find work can, but the sector that’s grown the most over the last five years has been service industry jobs. These can be capped at a max 35 hrs/week, which means that most employers use a loophole to avoid providing benefits. Plus which, we’ve had an increase in consumer prices and the cost-of-living index, so people have to work two service jobs just to be able to live.

Crime may be decreasing in certain areas, but do a careful search and define your factors before making a generalization. Violent crime is actually rising in most urban areas. Also, no all crimes get reported(such as domestic and child abuse), so that skews the results.

Income tax is fairly low compared to other countries, but the taxpayer gets less tangibles for their participation. I won’t see a dime of Social Security. The US system works well if you can afford it. One in eight Americans has no health insurance, and gets screwed if they get sick, or god forbid have to go to the hospital. The system punishes free riders by jacking up basic prices to cover their losses on uninsured or indigent patients. If you have a job, a car, a house, but no health insurance, try staying in a hospital for a week. When you come out, you’ll probably be living in the car, unless you’ve had to sell it to cover the $8 aspirins and $25 paper slippers.

We have a budget surplus because of eight years of fiscally aggressive legislation and management and because we’ve been riding a huge boom lately. This might not last if we don’t watch how we manage the budget.

Race relations in America suck donkey cock. People deal with racial differences by ignoring them. Diversity might be at an all-time high, but people are becoming more and more factionalized, like it or not. Try being black and getting a cab at 2.00 in the morning. Try being Hispanic and getting asked over the phone “Did you understand that” twelve times in a two minute phone call. Try speaking a foreign language and getting looked at funny by white people, who have to be then told “No, I’m actually from California.”

New medicines are being constantly developed. By huge companies who price it our of the reach of the people who need them. Who distribute free AIDS drugs to people in Africa and neglect to tell them they’re testing it for the first time.

Agriculture is booming! You’re right! Because Archer Daniels Midland and Monsanto are changing agriculture to “agribusiness” and buying family farms! And developing “terminator” strains of plants who don’t reseed themselves, so you have to buy new seed every year. And developing strains that are resistant to their proprietary herbicides so they push other varieties out!
Get a fuckin’ clue. Just because Tom Brokaw says it don’t mean it’s the truth. If, OTOH, you’re trying to stir up debate by taking deliberately contrarian positions, that’s cool. Do your research first though, dipshit.

Cordially signed,

Rev. Chris J. Long
US Foreign Service Officer (provisional)
and citizen of the United States of America.

53

I usually refrain from the applause or “giving that a 9.5” posts, but I just gotta say that was very impressive False God!

I am very interested in seeing how Puddleglum responds. If he has any humility and respectibility he will come into this thread and apologize to all those he so blatantly insulted with his bigotry.

54

Sorry Diane puddleglum doesn’t post in the Pit (a search on him as a poster in PIT threads turns up only this one. as I recall in the “gee, now it’s proven that gays can change their orientation” thread, he had several invites, and stated his intention to not participate).

So, he generates venom spewed nonsense to us, but won’t defend it except on his terms.

55

Thanks, Diane. I try to stay out of the Pit normally, but the blatant generalizations this fucktwit’s spewing just made me want to chime in. I did a degree in International Relations and have been all over, so this is one of the few places I feel justified to challenge ignorance. It’s people who spout off this sort of nonsense I have to keep educating, and apologising for when I’m abroad. Nicest thing said to me while abroad would have to be “Gee, you don’t seem like an American at all-you know what you’re talking about AND you can hold your liquor!” when I was in Amsterdam.
Now that I’ll be representing the States abroad, I just hope I can raise the bar from where it’s been lowered.

56

Very nice, False_God. Your claims about disasters for the uninsured when hospitalized were a bit off, and the “family farm” has been for the most part, a cherished myth in this country for a generation or so, but all in all, very very nice recap of facts.