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Reply 2291, Lentilla
I have a confession to make. Deep breaths everyone.
I don't vote.
Part of it has to do with my own arrogance. I just won't sign my name to someone I'm not 100% behind. I guess that comes from being taught that whatever I have to sign my name to today, I'll have to stand on tomorrow.
The other part is the fact that I resent the fact a middle man gets to decide-ultimately-who gets to be president.
In my opinion I think the electoral college should be abolished. Something new should be drawn up.
Do you think it would work if each individual state had one vote, for one president over the competition(despite what others think, more than one candidate would be just fine) that was decided by a popular vote. Everyone votes for whoever he/she/it wants, whoever has the most in the state decides the vote for that state. Then there are only fifty dies cast for the presidency. Then a candidate wouldn't try to win high population states and individual state rights wouldn't suffer. What do you think?
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|   | Subject: What's Wrong With Americans
Posted Aug 10, 2002 by Runner
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 2402
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"Thatcher was the epitome of the Little Englander syndrome. A creature filled with hate and malice". That's total crap. Just because her policies didn't find favour with you, Blues Shark, doesn't justify the above. She was well liked in her own constituency, Finchley (in London) which incidently has a high proportion of ethnic minorities. And loved in the City. And she won 3 general elections on the trot. Labour only could beat the Tories by copying their policies and distancing itself from socialism, which is all but dead in this country (and good riddance).
Perium, are you saying every state in the US should have one vote that weighs equally for every state? That would be the worst system ever! I don't know the exact numbers, but that would mean an agricultural state with 2 or 3 milion votes would have the same power as for instance California, wich has several tens of milion votes. This would definitely hurt individual rights. I don't get this apathy toward high-population states. I'm almost tempted to say "Aren't they people too?"
| | Subject: What's Wrong With Americans
Posted Aug 10, 2002 by Runner
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 2404
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Can't the total number of votes be tallied on the national level? Why bother doing state by state?
<off-topic>
Runner, re: Thatcher, she was particularly hated by us Scots, as reflected by the low number of Scottish Conservative MPs. When she came up with the "Poll Tax" as a way of making the poor pay a proportionally greater percentage of their income in taxes, she thought she'd try it out first in some far-flung province that nobody who voted for her really cared about... like... Scotland, for instance. As far as I'm concerned, the English deserve another year of Poll Tax to even the score for the extra year that was inflicted on the Scots at the outset.
</off-topic>
My final word on the Thatcher 'woman';
Check her chances of winning that second election victory immediately before and after the Falklands war. Then ask why the task force gathering in Buenos Aires wasn't headed off by a Naval task Force in the same way David Owen had done the last time the Argentinians had amassed a task force in the River Plate, under a labour administration. There's a difference between 'gunboat' and 'gunfire' diplomacy.
And yes, I know what she allegedly 'saved' us from. I think if the cure is worse than the disease than it ain't much cop.
As to the point about whether i think 'my country the best', Perium, I left that sort of debating behind in the school yard when i realised you can't quantify whether a blue shirt is better than a purple balloon.
Come now blues shark, surely you like where you live. Is it really a stretch to say you prefer blue shirts to purple balloons, and that you like blue shirts the best?
Stop trying to make it sound childish when you know and I know that we as humans tend have preferences for certain things, places, or people and that we exemplify this preference by saying we like these things "best".
It's not that big a thing. I couldn't care less whether someone loves their country or not- as for me, I've never lived anywhere else so can't judge objectively. This place is fair enough but I would never judge anything to be 'the best' unless I had personal evidence.
with you on the voting. I was suddenly 18 and realised I was required to vote, also realised I knew nothing about any of the parties and trusted them even less. (Knew nothing- apart from what they tell us, the opinions of others and what the papers say, none of which I'd base my decision on.) I'm still gathering.
My liking or disliking where I live is not the point.
The point is that my love of England is not justification or reason for me to shout that it's the best in the world.
I am well aware of the shortcomings of the English (still far too many T*ry voters, fior a start  ), and aware enough of my lack of knowledge regarding many other cultures in the world, to start proclaiming that;
'The English, the English, the English are best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest.'
| | Subject: What's Wrong With Americans
Posted Aug 12, 2002 by  E G Mel
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 2410
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I think England is the best for me but then I don't know anywhere else, I don't feel it has the best policies or the best solutions, and I definately don't believe it has the best society. There is no community feeling in so many areas anymore 
Mel 
But see, there is nothing inherently wrong with saying that you like your country best out of the options. Not everyone is going to agree with you, and I guess the thing that sets us apart is that we really don't care if other countries agree with us or not. Its a pride issue that really has nothing to do with objectivity.
Which, as I say, I like about us. I think its kind of funny that we can look around us at civilizations that have been in existence for centuries, and say.....you know, great history and all, but nothing tops what we've got. The shere audacity of it is funny and great at the same time. It epitomises how we see the world and the people in it.
Even better, you'd be within your rights to say that you detest us for being arrogant, but I say its not so much arrogance as it is pride.
Just as an example, most states in America use daylight savings time. But my state does not. Why? No good reason. We just don't. And I think that's hilarious.
I mean really, so we're smartasses by and large and most of the time we're full of crap, but does that make us the terrible people that we're painted to be?
I never said you were terrible, but I think being jack-asses and full of crap and continuing to look down your noses at the rest of the world doesn't endear you to many.
| | Subject: What's Wrong With Americans
Posted Aug 12, 2002 by E G Mel
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 2413
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I hate to say it but your chat shows really give you a *bad* name.
I just hope that all your people aren't like they idiots they find to go on Jerry Springer.
Mel
<troll>
Personally, I don't worry about the people on Jerry Springer's shows; they seem to be generally contained, and the police know where they live... 
What I *do* worry about is the people who watch them for "entertainment". The ratings show there's a huge slice of the US population who are probably spilling their beers on the sofa every night as they punch the air and chant "Jerry...! Jerry...!". At the risk of generalising, I would guess they're the sort of people you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley behind a redneck bar after chucking-out time...  
</troll>
| | Subject: What's Wrong With Americans
Posted Aug 12, 2002 by E G Mel
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 2415
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What scares me is they're spreading to this side of the pond, along with the b****y personal claims departments 'have ytou had an accident in the last 5 years' I can't afford my car insurance as it is!
Mel *I have never actually watched JS for longer than the duration of the english advert break! *
Hey, every country's TV coverage has its faults. I've seen Eastenders. 
My god you people digress and jump from one topic to another. From the electoral College to Thatcher to Jerry Springer. Get a grip and try to maintain some semblance of order!. In response to One Vote one Person, here in Canada, that's how it works. Kind of seems very democratic to me!
...please don´t expect this thread to be focused...
So you don't like me.
Big surprise.
And yes, I think audacious things and behavior are funny. Like for instance......Jerry Springer. It's like wrestling. Everyone knows its fake as hell. But we watch it for entertainment.
Sick? Probably. But then you all probably thought that about me anyway. LOL.
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