Hi Alan >Keith Addison wrote: > > > > >"Canada IS a free country"?? I thought it was logged in the books as a > > >"Socialist Country"?? > > > > > >Is Canada looking like a "free country" a tell-tale indication of what > > >(comparatively) the US has become (or is turning in to)??? > > > > > >No debate ... simply food for thought. > > > > > >Curtis > > > > Now here's a thing a lot of Americans just can't seem to see > > straight, too much "us" and "them". Get their knickers in a knot over > > "socialists" - AARGGHHH! (check under your beds! lock the doors! hang > > wild garlic in the windows!) - and somehow not notice that some of > > the most advanced and equitable, the sanest and probably "best" > > societies in many ways, are socialist states, like the Scandinavian > > countries. > >Their citizens certainly seem to think so.
I also think so. >Unfortunately American reportage on Europe often is fraught with >half-truths and Hogan's Heroes stereotyping. And this in turn has >led to profound misunderstandings between the two continents. For >instance, rarely do American journalists point out that Europeans >still enjoy free health care for all, cradle to grave; free >education through university level; comparatively generous >retirement for their elderly; an average of five weeks paid annual >vacation, more sick leave, parental leave, and a shorter work week >with comparable wages for their workers (French workers, with their >35 hour work week, work nearly a full day less per week than >American workers, who now work on average 42 hours per week). Social >spending in Europe runs some 50 percent above that in the United >States. Environmental, food safety, and labor laws are the envy of >activists in the US. >In fact, what was lost upon the US media is that the leaders and >political parties known as the "far right" in Europe for the most >part do not seek to overturn the European social state or its >proactive government regulation. On the contrary, they accept its >existence to a degree even the Democratic Party doesn't accept >today. In some countries the far right parties attained their recent >electoral successes by defending the welfare state that the >center-left parties had been rolling back the last few years. Their >leaders called for things like a re-commitment to quality public >health care, elderly care, mass transit, subsidized housing, and the >protection of the public pension and education systems. >Thus, in many respects, Europe's multiparty politics do not fit the >old left-right axis typically employed by American journalists. It's >comparing apples and oranges. Yet American media routinely fails to >distinguish these unique political characteristics of the European >landscape. http://eatthestate.org/07-09/upsdownsEuropean.htm The ups and downs of European politics Regarding the first paragraph, it's worth pointing out that, contrary to rumour, these socialist evils that allegedly make people lazy and spineless have not rendered the European countries any the less competitive or productive, perhaps quite the opposite. But then their governments aren't busy waging what The Nation just called "the most direct assault on working people, the environment and the poor that the country has seen since the presidency of William McKinley a century ago". See "The Rich Have Reason to Rejoice": http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20030106&s=dreier > > Meanwhile they also don't seem to notice that the land of > > the free seems to have been thoroughly purloined, and its cherished > > institutions, rights and constitutions with it - all the meaningless > > little bits of paper - by a bunch of maniacal corporate thugs. Well, > > that's how these bugaboos work. > >Indeed. Just witness the Oil Wars in the middle east, the copyright >wars over file sharing and Napster and its progeny, and all of the >corporate monopoly building and government buying by organizations such >as Micro$oft. To say the least. But what I meant is that the way such bugaboos work is that minor details like these fail to be duly witnessed, and thus they get away with it while people get the horrors over delusions like AARGGHHH! Socialism. "Off-topic political crap..." - only the so-called "Energy Policy" and its blithe neglect of biofuels and renewables is a prime example. Instead we should all go and pillage Iraq. For starters. Because of AARGGHHH! WOMDs, I think, wasn't it. Or was it Bin Laden? Or have we all forgotten about him by now? Seems so. Abracadabra. > > The Macarthy era's long over, you > > know... or is it? > >Fortunately the MacCarthy era is gone, and unlamented. Unfortunately >the Dubya era has replaced it. Oh, is that how you spell it, thanks. I wonder though if it ever did go, maybe it's an ongoing thing that waxes and wans (like werewolves with the moon?). Doesn't this continuing ludicrous terror of AARGGHHH! Socialism indicate that? We've had some folks here saying (proclaiming) some downright nutty things about socialism. Reagan was a recycled MacCarthyist, most of Dubya's thugs (and indeed criminals) seem to be recycled Reaganites. Early '60s depictions like Johnny Eiselin and General Jack D. Ripper are still very contemporary figures, seems to me. Anyway, hadn't you guys over there better start thinking about taking your country back? Please??? Regards Keith >AP >-- >Aviation is more than a hobby. It is more than a job. It is more than >a career. Aviation is a way of life. >A second language for the world: www.esperanto.net >Processor cycles are a terrible thing to waste: www.distributed.net Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
