Poverty, oil, WWII and the EU
Reader comment on item: Europe vs. America
in response to reader comment: Absolutism is eating the United States alive

Submitted by jennifer solis (United States), Aug 4, 2008 at 15:40

"Much of America lies in poverty."

Really? Maybe we should cut back on foreign aid. I'm sure you are aware that the U.S.A. contibutes more in foriegn aid than all other countries COMBINED. That's how "poor" America is. Close to where I live, we just had a 5.4 earthquake. It was felt from San Diego to Nevada. Not a single house, business, road, etc. was notebly damaged. Try that in India, China, South America, or even Japan. In case this sounds elitist, try this on for size: the #1 health problem in the U.S.A. is obesity. "Much of America lies in poverty" but they somehow manage three (sometimes twelve) square meals a day. "Much of America lies in poverty" but guess what country has the #1 position for immigration.

"The U.S. is feeling the pinch of pure capitalism coupled with a forcast lack of oil."

Capitalism in the U.S. is not the reason for the "forcast lack of oil", if that's your implication. In fact, due to the "greenies", otherwise known as the Socialist-Communist-Democratic Party we haven't had an oil refinery built in over thirty years. I'm sure you are aware of our Democrat-majority congress going on their summer vaction without voting on off-shore drilling. The Republican members of congress stayed behind in protest.

"Europe was not just 'given' an undeserved gift by the U.S., they fought tooth and nail for a victory."

Sign in a French gun shop window: "WWII rifle for sale. Once dropped, never fired." Put it this way: imagine Europe today without the U.S.'s involvement in WWII.

"The war is still deep in many people's consciousness, and it is for this reason that the EU was formed and why it continues; to economically bind the countries so that another war cannot take place."

Oh.

Take a look at what the EU has been up to lately -

"Th Commission of the European Union has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the Europen Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded to the Union that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as 'Euro-English'. In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard 'c' will be dropped in favor of the 'k'. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with 'f'. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent 'e' in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away. By the 4th yer peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v'. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas."

Stephen, if WWIII should take place, the only function the EU would serve is that of the villiage idiot.

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