The end of an error.
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 4, 2026 09:56
VIEWED: 6410
PAGE 9 of 12
Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Bush won in the middle east. Carter didn't.
Bush "won"? So it really WAS "Mission Accomplished"? What did he "win"? The wars there are completely over, then, and we're done and all our soldiers have come home, eh? Well, except for the more than 4000 who died there, that is.
So Bush got more than 7000 Americans killed between 9/11 and yesterday, but your take is that he "won" the middle east.
Yer crackin' me up, boy.
Also among Bush's stellar accomplishments: Shaving nearly 45% off value of the stock market. From a high just over 14000, he managed to drive the stock market down to just under 8000 on his last day in office.
Oh, and he also managed to get us awfully close to that magical 10% unemployment figure that Carter gets blamed for (but which actually didn't occur until well into Reagan's first term!)...
Keep on telling yourself that Bush was better than Carter.
Mike
"It is complete now; the hands of time are neatly tied."
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http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070318/26intro.htm
HOW THEY DO IT BETTER
By Susan Headden
Posted 3/18/07
US News and World Report
We have the biggest GDP, the finest universities, the highest ownership of color TVs, and the greatest number of Nobel Prize winners. So how come the Danes are the happiest people in the world? Living in the dark, no less.
Schoolchildren in New Zealand are cleaning our clocks in math and science. Teachers are better paid and more respected in Japan. Our highways are choked with traffic, but we can't manage to build a train that goes more than 150 mph.
Our eating habits? Please. Just compare our average portion with a meal in Japan, and you'll understand why our adult obesity rate is 32 percent, compared with only 3.6 percent for the Japanese. The French, likewise, are slim and well fed-and they offer world-class dinner conversation to boot. Their secret: They don't want to know what you did yesterday; they want to engage you in a lively discussion of ideas.
But our shortcomings are bigger than dining and discourse. Remarkably, the United States is nowhere to be found on the Economist's global index of lowest infant mortality. At the other end, our average life expectancy, at 77.9, puts us 40th in the world- after Costa Rica and Cuba. As for our treatment of the planet, we're down at No. 28 on the global index of environmental performance, a value based on six measurements of environmental health. Meanwhile, Denmark manages to get 20 percent of its energy from the wind. And in Singapore, tossing a candy wrapper on the sidewalk will set you back a thousand bucks.
On a grimmer index, America has more people in prison-2,135,900-than any other country in the world. And the highest rate of gun-related homicides of all industrialized nations. If we followed Europe's example of treating drug addicts rather than jailing them, would the numbers go down? It's a complex and controversial question. But Holland's experience shows that treatment of drug abuse is at least vastly cheaper than the alternative.
In the following pages, we offer 30 lessons we can learn from other countries. The list is admittedly unscientific and decidedly incomplete. We're not even saying that all of these practices would work here; if Americans wanted free day care and government-funded maternity leave, after all, they'd have to pay Norway-size taxes.
What follow are simply practices that intrigued us: the Germans retraining prostitutes to care for the elderly, the Brazilian buses that are so clean and efficient that even the rich people ride them, and the Japanese toilets that deodorize the room and put the seat down when you're done.
What from your travels has caused you to ask: "Why can't we do this here?" Let us hear from you.
30 Valuable Lessons That Americans Can Learn From the Rest of the World: (original contains links)
Europe: Giving Drivers the Benefit of the Doubt
Germany, Netherlands: Making the Streets Safer for Cycling
Dominican Republic: Where Ballplayers Are Born and Made
Colombia: All Aboard South America's Upper-Class Bus
Finland: Sticking It to the Scofflaw
Europe: Flying on the Cheap
Japan, South Korea: Want a Drink? Pay With Your Phone
France: Talking Is a World-Class Sport
Japan: Even the Toilet Is High-Tech
Australia: Protection From the Sun
Afghanistan: Honored to Be Your Host
Japan: Skimpy Portions and Satisfied Stomachs
Netherlands: Below Sea Level? No Problem
Finland: The Secret to Smarter Schools
Germany: Novel Aides for the Aged
Sweden: Straight Facts About the Birds and Bees
Italy: Food Not as Fuel but as a Way of Life
Taiwan: The Afternoon Nap Attack
Japan: Communing Through Cleaning
Netherlands: Abuse as a Disease, Not a Crime
Singapore: When You Litter, You Pay
Norway: Getting Paid for Parenting
Europe: Holes That Make for Better Roads
Bhutan: Smoke-Free at the Top of the World
Iceland: Pristine Reputation for Government
United Kingdom: Finding Yourself (and the World) in a Year
E
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Mike,
Remember that Rap can breeze past Bush's abysmal failure by saying 'except for 9/11'. If those 2974 deaths count for nothing, surely additional deaths count for less than nothing.
***************************************************************
Silence is consent.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Wulfenstar:
Ok, I'd like to see us more like Germany is (Now).
All of its citizens are militarily trained.
Thats not exactly true, Germany has conscription, but there's exceptions and people can refuse it and conduct civilian service instead. There is in actuallity probably less than 50% of Germany citizens with military training.
More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.
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Well, if this is true...its still pretty good.
Criminals KNOW that in Germany there is a 50/50 chance that the person they are going to try and rob/rape/murder is militarily trained and armed.
No wonder the crime rate is so low.
We need to do that here.
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But Wulf, that could be Somalia, or Colombia, or Mexico. There's more to Germany than being saturated with guns, like...
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a postive balance of trade and a healthy industrial sector
high taxes (VAT of 19%... similar to our "sales tax") and income tax up to 50%
a school system which prohibits home schooling, refers to a national curriculum, and has a national anti-bullying program
nationalized basic industries: power, water, telecom, mass transportation and roads,
state-mandated insurance plans (with the "government plan" being one option)
cradle-to-grave social welfare which accounts for approximately 30% of GDP
low military costs
an extensive network of regulations, even making manufacturers liable for the ultimate disposal of not only the product but the packaging
an economic inequality index of approximately 28, as compared to a US index of 48.
Maybe the low crime rate has more to do with people not being as stressed out there as they are here. You willing to go along with the rest of the package?
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It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
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Of course Im not for that, Sig. The question was what PART of other countries do we like.
That was the PART I liked.
The rest of the system they live under is still National Socialism. Its just that they don't kills Jews anymore.
SOME may find it ok to be a wage-slave to the government...but not I.
50% of their paycheck goes to the government....Jesus Christ....what a bunch of pussies.
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Well, you like the low crime rate. You like that people seem relaxed and free to live their lives, even at night. You THINK it's because of conscription and a high rate of gun ownership. But you haven't shown a cause-and-effect relationship, and I could probbaly destroy your assumed connection simply by finding other nations with similar conscription and gun ownerships with high crime. Or nations with equally low crime rates, or even lower, with less gun ownership and NO conscription. Guess what I'm saying is... a single correlation between two factors in one country doesn't mean there's a cause and effect relationship.
Quote:Who are, apparently, aggressive and well-armed enough to keep crime down? Doesn't compute, Wulf.
what a bunch of pussies.
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It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
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They are weak in that they allow their government to take, by force, 1/2 of their paycheck.
Not in how they deal with crime.
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country? i like canada just fine, but given the choice, i will go with Holland, er ah, Netherlands that is... (it's a roots thing)
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