If American adolescents become convinced they should take the vaccine (ay, there’s the rub), they will take it, whatever the law has to say about it. It surely can’t be any more difficult to get a banned vaccine (IF somebody will develop it and IF the kids realize they need it) than it is to get ecstasy, acid, pot, 2c-e, etc. (gotta watch out for that etc, it’s powerful stuff)

See, unlike you – I won’t dismiss your opinion just because I disagree with you – and I’m desperately trying to read your point through the venum – and I intend to continue to try.

Like I said – I’ve been all over the world – and had I found a country that was better than the US as far as liberty goes – I’d move there – in fact, I would have moved there long ago.

But … maybe I missed this “paradise” – so can you please enlighten me as to which nation all your friends are moving to – which you are claiming in your response above?

I’d like to check it out.

What I’m looking for is a nation that allows me to make my decisions about healthcare – if I don’t want it – I don’t have to have it. If I want it – I have the right to shop around for the best deal that makes sense to me.

I’m looking for a place that will allow me to keep my assault rifles – as I can here in the US. I believe that an armed population always has options with a tyranical government – while a DIS-Armed population has none.

I currently own a two-story home with a fenced in backyard of approx 1 acre. I can afford this because the government doesn’t overtax me – though they are getting there fast. So I need to move someplace where the tax rates are lower than in the US – also, I’ll need a job – which I’ve never had a problem finding here in the US.

I need a place where Freedom of Speech is respected – and no, it’s not respected everywhere. In Germany – you can’t carry a swastika – I don’t want to carry one anyway – but if that can be prohibited then anything can. Ann Coulter was warned by the Canadian Government that their free speech laws were different from the US’s – so she needed to watch her mouth while in Canada or she could be arrested for hate speech. I think “hate speech” is a garbage government excuse for “speech we, the tyrants, don’t like” – so I don’t want to move to a country like that.

Now – if your friends have found such a country – PLEASE let me know. But if they, are simply to moving to “socialist paradises” because they think their physical lives will be more pleasant (until the government runs out of money) – I’m not interested.

I just got back from my son’s graduation from a small Louisiana college and watched HUNDREDS of kids from the Ukraine, Czech Republic, Russia, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and a host of other nations get their diploma. Why do kids travel around the world to attend a small-time Louisiana college?
Because it’s IN AMERICA.

Uh-huh. And have you taken this same survey in other countries? Do you honestly believe that you wouldn’t be able to find the same diversity in the students? And really? Those countries you listed? Yes, of course they left those countries. That is exactly what I meant about your attitude, so thank you for making my point. Only compare America to countries with much worse problems and we look GREAT!

Furthermore, did you ever consider that the reason they are going to school in America is because the curriculum is easier? I know plenty of Western European students in universities over here, but they all say the same thing, “It’s less challenging.” My friend Niels is from Germany and he said that the way we test (and ultimately reward with a diploma) students is much easier to bs through than in Germany, France, or the UK, where you have to give oral presentations/discussions of what you know to a panel of professors, only one of which is yours. You either know the subject or you don’t. Here? So easy to bullshit and get an A. Final question, are these students staying here or going back home?

Sorry – but that’s not traveling the world. Watching Anderson Cooper from your living room while he runs around in a flak jacket and a goofy helmet in Afghanistan is NOT travelling the world.

This doesn’t even make sense. You clearly didn’t understand me. Who said anything about them watching a show in their living room? Again, you brilliantly illustrate my point in a way that I couldn’t. When someone is in another country and yet they can only view that country through “America is the best” lens, then no, their minds haven’t left home.

Sure Republicans are guilty of that kind of mentality – but they haven’t been the majority party in Congress for SIX YEARS.

You have this knack of making inaccurate claims (yet EASILY researched), hence my knack of not taking your opinion on the state of other countries (especially those we are supposed to be “equal” to) compared to America seriously. Republicans control the House and the Democrats control the Senate; ergo, NEITHER party is in the majority. Furthermore, quite a few of those Democrats in both houses of Congress are the Blue Dog, numbering 26–so add that to the Republican count. Unfortunately, there are very few “liberal” Republicans left in Washington, so its not as though their number will invalidate the contribution of Blue Dog Dems to any Republican initiative. Also, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist…it doesn’t really matter. If you’re conservative and narrow-minded that is the mentality that will develop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112th_United_States_Congress

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774721.html

http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/R41647.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dog_Coalition

So I’m going to go back to ignoring most of what you say just as you ignore most of what I say. Toodles.

There are plenty of people who have traveled the world but their minds never left home.

Sorry – I misread this – initially I thought you were saying it was possible to travel the world with your mind – without leaving home. Actually you were saying the opposite.

When I travel the world – I usually spend about month at a time living and working with foreign nationals of a different nation. I do this about three months out of every year.

Normally there will be about five Americans and 15 to 20 foreign nationals from the host nation. The cooks are foreign – I eat foreign food. The television is foreign. You wouldn’t believe the misconceptions many foreigners have of the US – why? Because they’ve never been here. There are simply a lot of people making judgements about the world who’ve never seen it.

I’ve done this for 30 years. I’ve painted school houses in East Timor while wearing a flak jacket because of armed insurgents in a nearby jungle who seemed to LIKE shooting at Americans who were simply trying to improve the life conditions of little East Timorean kids.

I have first hand experience dealing with the attitudes of Arabs who think Osama is the greatest thing since liquid soap. I mean – I’ve talked to these people – been spat on by one.

The places I’ve been – there was not a local tourist agent holding up a sign at the airport with my name on it. I went to these places the hard way and didn’t stay in five star hotels – I was often berthed with the local population, completely immersed in the culture – not there to sight see. I had to understand these people and these nations.

I’m simply telling you – that, after all that – had I found ANY place better than this god-forsaken nation known as the US – I WOULD BE THERE AS A CITIZEN now.

But I am not. You can dismiss this – you’re welcome to – but I don’t think you can become enlightened by completely dismissing the opinions of those who disagree with you – especially when they have some experience in the subject.

other people like you who do

Ad hominem.

How many different countries have you lived in or visited?

There are plenty of people who have traveled the world but their minds never left home.

Sorry – but that’s not traveling the world. Watching Anderson Cooper from your living room while he runs around in a flak jacket and a goofy helmet in Afghanistan is NOT travelling the world.

I certainly agreed with you that the US is plenty fucked up. However, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that it’s worse than any other place on the planet – it’s not. I just got back from my son’s graduation from a small Louisiana college and watched HUNDREDS of kids from the Ukraine, Czech Republic, Russia, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and a host of other nations get their diploma. Why do kids travel around the world to attend a small-time Louisiana college?

Because it’s IN AMERICA.

I wouldn’t even agree with you that most politicians think the US is always right. You’re certainly not talking about the MAJORITY party right now. Sure Republicans are guilty of that kind of mentality – but they haven’t been the majority party in Congress for SIX YEARS.

And I always got “No”. Sometimes I got a giggle with that answer too, or a “No, Silly”.

Now, I don’t think I missed much.

In males – there’s a tertiary desire to MARK a woman for life. You can be #2 through #50 and the girl may totally forget you by the time she’s in her 40′s – unless you were exceedingly skilled or did something notable that she remembers.

She will never forget her first time. So taking a virgin is a way for a man to install himself into the mind of a woman for a lifetime.

The only problem is – since she’ll remember YOU – she’ll also remember how good you were for her or how bad you were. I also think she compares every lover she ever had to you – and you probably won’t come out very favorably.

And the reason for that is – sure, you may not have known what you were doing when you deflowered her – but also you’re disadvantaged in the fact that the experience is a just a tiny bit traumatic and painful for her – so that may inhibit your dazzling performance a bit as well as certainly coloring her memory of it.

And, it’s too bad that Mugabe and his Marxists have kept the tribes pitted against white Africans and against each other. Zimbabwe is a beautiful country and most of the people are beautiful too but Mugabe and his hoards have completely ruined it.