Religion in politics

[Gooshin]

Originally Posted by graphicgr8s

You SHOULD stand under your own flag. And you should be damn proud of her as well.

I'm curious as to what you have done, in your life, to defend the American Flag and what it stands for.

[Blue]

Originally Posted by Damn Brit

Crackers? Some of them are downright insane.

I doubt if you or flippedgazelle would know a cracker if it came in a box.

[flippedgazelle]

Originally Posted by Blue

I doubt if you or flippedgazelle would know a cracker if it came in a box.

I was once assaulted with a tube of Ritz.

[Gooshin]

Originally Posted by flippedgazelle

I was once assaulted with a tube of Ritz.

I think you're thinking of Pringles.

[Blue]

Originally Posted by flippedgazelle

I was once assaulted with a tube of Ritz.

Can you id your assailant in a police line up?

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

[flippedgazelle]

Originally Posted by Gooshin

I think you're thinking of Pringles.

You getting chippy with me?

Ritz crackers are round, and are packaged in 4 (I think) "tubes" per box.

[Gooshin]

Originally Posted by flippedgazelle

You getting chippy with me?

Ritz crackers are round, and are packaged in 4 (I think) "tubes" per box.

Thats not nearly as entertaining...

[flippedgazelle]

Originally Posted by Blue

Can you id your assailant in a police line up?

Depends... which one has the most money? Someone has to pay for a-salting me!

[flippedgazelle]

Originally Posted by Blue

Can you id your assailant in a police line up?

And it's definitely not the Stax... no way I'd complain about getting "Lay'd".

[graphicgr8s]

YouTube - Charlie Daniels Band - Simple Man

[flippedgazelle]

Originally Posted by graphicgr8s

YouTube - Charlie Daniels Band - Simple Man

Werd.

10char

[Damn Brit]

Originally Posted by Blue

Can you id your assailant in a police line up?

That's totally unrealistic, there would be no survivor from a Pringles attack. "Once you pop, you can't stop."

[newmikey]

Originally Posted by Blue

...you are full of crap there.

You have this wonderful...."je ne sais quoi" attitude about you that really makes it hard to debate.

I'm not sure what Power Blocks you are talking about

Warsaw Pact vs. NATO would come to mind. Berlin wall, Iron Curtain....any of that ring a bell?

There are even dialects of English

I wasn't talking about "dialects", I was talking about radically different languages, entirely different so that you wouldn't understand each other and you come up with "dialects of English"? Imagine someone from New York speaking Finnish and nothing else while an LA person would speak only Italian. You come up with the fact that other languages are spoken, sure but not to the exclusion of English. The English language, or rather the corrupted version that is used in the US, is what binds the country together and makes it possible for 50 states to be a nation.

...others that go back a century and a half...

Somehow that fails to impress as it seems to be like yesterday.

Again: the US is about as diverse as a lump of coal, even if it's made to shine like a diamond. You might suspect I am a US-hater, the truth is quite the opposite. I admire the US for all it has accomplished in such a short time, only a few hundred years. I also happen to like US politics vis-a-vis Iraq, Afghanistan and various other terrorist hotbeds so no US-bashing from me.

But culturally diverse? No, the American translation is "we'll take one aspect of a culture that was eradicated, we'll enlarge it, focus on it and claim we have conserved it."

The word "historic" in the US means "we built it 5 years ago to look like stuff we have seen in pictures or overseas and we think this is what the public will swallow as authentic." like in "historical city centre" or "authentic 18th century shopping center".

"Grandma's home-made applepie" means that a factory was built that can spit out 2 million of these a day and you put a picture of grandma on the packaging.

Is that to say Europeans do not want to be fooled? Oh, I wouldn't dare state that. A lot of European countries are going in the direction of the US with less and less real taste, real emotion, real art, real materials. As long as it looks/tastes good.

Back to "culturally diverse": as a melting pot, the US is culturally diverse, much more than any individual European country is. The difference is that European countries have never turned into a melting pot. Despite what the Brussels autocrats would have us believe, the EU is but an economic union, nothing else. Therefore 27 different countries in an economic union, plus some 20 other assorted hangers-on which are not part of that union, eventually show a much more diverse picture.

Edit: the whole discussion about the flag thing proves that point. I dare you to find anyone at all that would stand for-, defend- or rally around the European flag...it's not going to happen!

[graphicgr8s]

Originally Posted by newmikey

You have this wonderful...."je ne sais quoi" attitude about you that really makes it hard to debate.



Warsaw Pact vs. NATO would come to mind. Berlin wall, Iron Curtain....any of that ring a bell?



I wasn't talking about "dialects", I was talking about radically different languages, entirely different so that you wouldn't understand each other and you come up with "dialects of English"? Imagine someone from New York speaking Finnish and nothing else while an LA person would speak only Italian. You come up with the fact that other languages are spoken, sure but not to the exclusion of English. The English language, or rather the corrupted version that is used in the US, is what binds the country together and makes it possible for 50 states to be a nation.



Somehow that fails to impress as it seems to be like yesterday.

Again: the US is about as diverse as a lump of coal, even if it's made to shine like a diamond. You might suspect I am a US-hater, the truth is quite the opposite. I admire the US for all it has accomplished in such a short time, only a few hundred years. I also happen to like US politics vis-a-vis Iraq, Afghanistan and various other terrorist hotbeds so no US-bashing from me.

But culturally diverse? No, the American translation is "we'll take one aspect of a culture that was eradicated, we'll enlarge it, focus on it and claim we have conserved it."

The word "historic" in the US means "we built it 5 years ago to look like stuff we have seen in pictures or overseas and we think this is what the public will swallow as authentic." like in "historical city centre" or "authentic 18th century shopping center".

"Grandma's home-made apple pie" means that a factory was built that can spit out 2 million of these a day and you put a picture of grandma on the packaging.

Is that to say Europeans do not want to be fooled? Oh, I wouldn't dare state that. A lot of European countries are going in the direction of the US with less and less real taste, real emotion, real art, real materials. As long as it looks/tastes good.

Back to "culturally diverse": as a melting pot, the US is culturally diverse, much more than any individual European country is. The difference is that European countries have never turned into a melting pot. Despite what the Brussels autocrats would have us believe, the EU is but an economic union, nothing else. Therefore 27 different countries in an economic union, plus some 20 other assorted hangers-on which are not part of that union, eventually show a much more diverse picture.

Edit: the whole discussion about the flag thing proves that point. I dare you to find anyone at all that would stand for-, defend- or rally around the European flag...it's not going to happen!

Actually in Kalifornia it would be Ebonics. Certain parts of the south speak Creole And now you have to press one for English. Heck look at the Yankee player that only speaks Japanese. He's been here what, five years and doesn't speak any English?


You're so wrong about the apple pie thing though. There all made in China and shipped over to us now.

[Blue]

Originally Posted by newmikey

You have this wonderful...."je ne sais quoi" attitude about you that really makes it hard to debate.

You earned the full of crap comment with your lump of coal comment.


Warsaw Pact vs. NATO would come to mind. Berlin wall, Iron Curtain....any of that ring a bell?

Newsflash, I used the European Union as a comparison.


I wasn't talking about "dialects", I was talking about radically different languages, entirely different so that you wouldn't understand each other and you come up with "dialects of English"? Imagine someone from New York speaking Finnish and nothing else while an LA person would speak only Italian. You come up with the fact that other languages are spoken, sure but not to the exclusion of English. The English language, or rather the corrupted version that is used in the US, is what binds the country together and makes it possible for 50 states to be a nation.

You are still very ignorant or naive here.

Somehow that fails to impress as it seems to be like yesterday.

Again: the US is about as diverse as a lump of coal, even if it's made to shine like a diamond. You might suspect I am a US-hater, the truth is quite the opposite. I admire the US for all it has accomplished in such a short time, only a few hundred years. I also happen to like US politics vis-a-vis Iraq, Afghanistan and various other terrorist hotbeds so no US-bashing from me.

But culturally diverse? No, the American translation is "we'll take one aspect of a culture that was eradicated, we'll enlarge it, focus on it and claim we have conserved it."

The word "historic" in the US means "we built it 5 years ago to look like stuff we have seen in pictures or overseas and we think this is what the public will swallow as authentic." like in "historical city centre" or "authentic 18th century shopping center".

"Grandma's home-made applepie" means that a factory was built that can spit out 2 million of these a day and you put a picture of grandma on the packaging.

Is that to say Europeans do not want to be fooled? Oh, I wouldn't dare state that. A lot of European countries are going in the direction of the US with less and less real taste, real emotion, real art, real materials. As long as it looks/tastes good.

Back to "culturally diverse": as a melting pot, the US is culturally diverse, much more than any individual European country is. The difference is that European countries have never turned into a melting pot. Despite what the Brussels autocrats would have us believe, the EU is but an economic union, nothing else. Therefore 27 different countries in an economic union, plus some 20 other assorted hangers-on which are not part of that union, eventually show a much more diverse picture.

Edit: the whole discussion about the flag thing proves that point. I dare you to find anyone at all that would stand for-, defend- or rally around the European flag...it's not going to happen!
You clearly missed the point on both discussions. Furthermore, I guess you don't use Euros, etc.

The biggest part of the rest of that has no bearing on my original comparison which was stating that the USA is a complex place regarding politics, religion, culture etc. It was not a dig at Europe. It was a comparison of geographic size and diversity. Again you proved my point in that you aren't comparing things Dutch with the U.S.A. but the EU. You clearly flat missed my point in the original post, and got your panties bunched up. If you think Maine is like Louisiana or Florida is like Iowa or Tennessee is like Hawai, or New York is like Arizona your are clearly naive. Our states are the size of European countries. You also failed to grasp that the 50 different states have their own soverign Constitutions. For example, Florida has had a fugitive warrant out on a criminal. He was arrested in Georgia. However, he has to be extradited through the courts to bring him back to Florida.Years ago, a convicted murderer escaped jail, and fled to Michigan. Michigan refused to extradite him and he stayed up there for decades.

REGARDING HISTORY: We have some cities in Florida that fairly old one was built in 1596. The colonies were here BEFORE 1775 as well as other cultures before that. Mexico City which is in North America is one of the oldest cities in the world. There are also plenty of archeological sites around North and South America. Your attempt to use "lack of history" to imply that U.S.A. and other North and South American countries lack diverse culture is pretty weak. There are influences that pre-existed European settlers. Plus, you overlooked that every subset of European Culture has influenced communities in the U.S.A. on some level with some having more influence than others. The same for other cultures from other continents.