🚀 go-pugleaf

"yert" <yertbarNOyeSPAM@hotmail.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:08cd5271.e04dff58@usw-ex0102-014.remarq.com...
> >Don't waste your time with the yerts and Malones of the world;
> they
> >think John Rocker is a role model for their kids.
>
> Easy there Cow-boy! In my opinion, John Rocker deserves any
> punishment he gets.

Malone is the bovine-obsessed one. Didn't mean to mischaracterize you.

> >This is the thought process: "I live in a nice house in the
> suburbs;
> >America's worked out just fine for me. Everyone else must be a
> lefty.
> >Moo."
> >
> >
> Well moo to you! This last statement is simply untrue. I even
> said in my so-called "blind patriotism" posts that America has
> many flaws and is far from perfect (you can look it up!) I just
> wanted to point out that, compared to 90 percent of the world
> that lives in abject poverty under brutal political oppression,
> we are lucky to be where we are. And, compared to the rest of
> the world, our system works pretty well, in spite of the power
> of big corporations. Kindly name the nations of this earth
> bigger than Luxemburg that a)work better than this one, b) that
> provide as high a standard of living for as large a percentage
> of the population as this one, and c)that guarantee as many
> personal liberties as this one. As I pointed out earlier, why do
> thousands of people from all over the world migrate here every
> year?

Well, frankly, they also emigrate to other democracies as well:
Britain, France, Germany, etc. We're not unique in that regard. I also
think the "90 percent ... abject poverty ... political oppression"
stuff is a bit exaggerated. Things ARE getting better -- more
democracies, more vibrant economies with middle classes -- and a lot
of it is because they're following our lead. And there are only a
couple of countries bigger than ours in population, anyway. The fact
is, I agree with you, at least in the (apocryphal) Winston Churchill
sense: "Democracy is the worst of the political systems ... except for
all the rest."

I do fear many of the same things Matt does, even though he probably
despises me as a mere "liberal". :-S The amount of control that
corporations have today is disturbing, and they seem to have little
fear of government regulation. The defense for any corporate practice
is that making money is a constitutionally protected virtue that
should be encouraged despite the consequences. The media explode to
500 channels ... owned by 5 corporations. The government regulation
you cite amount to fly-swats amid a roaring stock market and merger
mania. One of the biggest industries in the country is credit, and
most Americans have no savings. Disney buys a 20-year extension for
Mickey Mouse and names it after Sonny Bono. Software companies bully
states into passing UCITA. Invasion of privacy on the internet isn't
the daily activity of hackers, but major corporations, who trade
everything from favored sex sites to health records with near
impunity. Oil companies get American kids to die protecting their
asse[t]s, then jack up prices without a second thought.

I think you and I may share a great deal in terms of respect for
individuals, it's just that you fear the government more than the
corporations, while for me it's vice versa. (At least the government
will protect me against a corporation. When's the last time a
corporation protected you against the government?)