Posted on 07/09/2006 4:46:50 AM PDT by Leifur
This is a very interesting article, one thing I would say from the UK point of view is that in the 80s Mrs Thatcher drove a bulldozer through the power of the state and the unions bringing Capitalism to the forefront of the Britain. None of this happened in continental Europe.
The question everyone keeped asking in Britain for years after that was "where have all the commies and socialists gone?". The answer was that they appeared in new guises, i.e. left wing think tanks and quangos, politically correct focus groups etc, all working for the state. Such was their rage and anger at being quashed by Mrs T.
They realised that Capitalism in Britain was here to stay and they could do nothing about it, but their vile mindset was accustomed to revenge in a different way like the above and now we seem to be reaping the awful consequences of the liberalists revenge since Tony Blair's New Labour was elected and the state has almost gone back to being as big as it was in the 1970s.
I think from this we can conclude that Britain is much closer to the US in the free market policy area but that we still have the same amount of state worshipping lefty's as continental Europe who keep trying to pull us backwards all the time.
Tolik--I'm pinging you to this article because I believe Paul Belien's article would be an enjoyable read for your ping list! If not, well it's still a great article.
Definitely a good "Nailed It!" nominee.
I thought so! I do enjoy Tolik's "Nailed It" reading pings!
This viev by the Dutchman is a recurring feature here in Iceland and in other places I am afraid. It is the result of to much power of the government in some ways, but interestingly I beliewe it is also the result, partially, of the more individual freedom in the market, wich seems to keep many content.
But it helps the status qo and the increasing power of the leftists/government in many other issues.
>>and although we would not call it americanism, we must pick and choose what the US has done right and apply it in the various European countries.
I think that because the Left in this country, and abroad, have hammered so hard on what we've done wrong, in an effort to take America down, that it's hard to have a substantive discussion on it, because Conservatives tend to immediately circle wagons when these issues come up.
But you're right, and I don't think anyone, least of all this author, would suggest that all aspects of America need to be picked up and carried across the pond to replace what's in place in Europe.
>>The thing is that european nations are probably nearly as divided in these issues as Americans, but only one voice is allowed to be heard unlike across the pond.
Here, alternate communications for political ideas really got going in the late 1960s/early 1970s with things like Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum newsletter (she was huge in stopping the Equal Rights Amendment), direct mail with Richard Viguerie for Reagan, and then Rush Limbaugh on radio in the late 80s. The Internet really got going for us in the late 90s, and I think we're really seeing the political results of all of this today.
The point is, it takes time, perserverance, and willingness to be painted as "evil", or made as invisible as possible, by your current media elites (as all of the people mentioned above were/are), to build the alternative political communications paths to overcome the existing system.
So get to work! ;-)
I took a one semester linguistics class in college and was fascinated to discover that the Southern “drawl’ is closest to the English accent as spoken in the 18th Century in America. To this day, both Southern and British speakers use the word “reckon” frequently.
*
It's hard to point to what to examples of what has happened due to Americans being armed. Rather, we can point to what hasn't happened.
We've seen too many disarmed citizens of other countries marched off to their deaths. Tyrants know they will expect no resistance, so it's easy for a small number to murder a much larger number of people.
We've also seen instances, even in America, where local disasters leave our deputized police ineffective. Anarchy has a hard time making headway here when the local bad guy can be terminated instantly.
Finally, it's much easier to put up with the leftist hate and insanity when you realize they have no means of imposing their will by force of arms.
Our Second Ammendment is doing its job when it doesn't have to be used. It's a deterrent that every citizen has available.
we reckon that this or that is worth doing....
I reckon I'll cut the grass today
that sort of thing?
That is exactly the way those with a Southern accent speak. "Reckon" is also heard often out here in the West as many Southerners migrated this way after the Civil War though the Western accent is less regional sounding. An Aussie friend of mine also used that word a lot.
In medieval times, the king has little influence on an ordinary person's life. Government's responsibility did not include health care, welfare, or education. These were the domains of private institutions, mainly the Church. The Europeans, in their fight to plunder and destroy the Church, handed these domains to government, making their governments ever more intrusive. In the US, these have been the battle lines between conservatives, and "progressives" who look to Europe as their model.
I think American regional accents are gradually trending more toward a common *American* accent. Since I like the southern and the tidewater accents, I think this is sort of sad.
I remember traveling from Illinois to Wisconsin in 1977 and as soon as I crossed the state line the accent changed.
I used to spend a lot of time in east Texas when I was younger and all of the broadcasters on TV and radio had a heavy Southern accent. After an absense of a few years, I returned last year and was suprised to hear almost all the broadcasters using what you call an "American" and I would call Mid-Western accent which is becoming the universal accent of broadcasting.
It is diffcult to prove to an outsider that our 2nd has kept us free. There haven't been too many occasions in which it has been used to correct government recently, but the Battle of Athens is a good example.
I do believe that when policy makers convene in secret, the 2nd is always on the back of their minds when deciding how far they will go. For more immediate needs, it provides protection from fellow citizens who prey on others. There are many examples daily of criminals meeting an untimely end at the wrong end of a home owners weapon. Just look at Great Britain. They've all but abolished legal gun ownership, and now brazen criminals invade homes in broad daylight with no fear of retaliation.
I've heard, and seen from pictures and films, of the beauty of Iceland. It's nice you can have a society without the need for guns. Our nation is very different, with racial and political tensions boiling below just below the surface of a much larger population. Guns are a necessity here.
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