h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

He's my friend. (And I answered your Odyssey question by beginning a new discussion on your userpage... I'm going to bed now!!!)

I feel stupid. I never look down there.

*still not through all the backlog, but*

*has to hug Dragonfly, cl zoomer and anhaga, too* and:

There was something about taxes in the backlog... As a very hard smoker I have to confess that I seem to pay for anti-terrorist-things without the chance to say "Hey, could you spend it for health care, please?". In Germany they just decided (after 11-09-01) to make tobacco more expensive "to work against terrorism". So, because I am a smoker, I am a very good citizen???

Archangel,
thank you for post 95.
This patriotism thing is really hard to get for me living here in Scandinavia. As a kid during the late 60´s we didn´t learn our national hymn in school (-I still only know the first few lines)(kids do now) if any of my teachers had tried to makes us sing that song most parents would have gone mad. (We did sing we shall over come though)
So hearing all this "God bless America" from your president is really weird for me. Why is saying that? Does he speak for God? Promising his fellow Americans that they are blessed? Or is he asking for his country to be blessed?
I think we live on a beautiful planet. We´re all humans. Let´s go to the next step in history - no borders, no citizenships

"I think we live on a beautiful planet. We´re all humans. Let´s go to the next step in history - no borders, no citizenships "

I agree, Izzybelle. Unfortunately, I suspect Mr. Bush might have similar ideas late in the night: no borders because the U. S. spans the globe, no citizenships because he's the President of everybody. And, of course, Ossama bin Laden would like to see something similar with Allah and his representatives in charge.

Personally, I could feel quite comfortable if Canada and Sweden and Iceland and Denmark and Norway and the Netherlands and Belgium, for example, all got together and said "forget the crap, we're one country" and set an example for the rest of the world. That would be a new form of empire.

Anhaga, this sounds like a great idea
When do we start

I wish we'd started it back in the eighties when our (American) Prime Minister "American" Mulroney started the whole Free Trade notion with the U. S. Now our markets are open to American business but they keep trying to block our products at the border.
Fortunately, our present Prime Minister is making bilateral deals with other countries, including some pretty major ones just announced with Mexico.
I guess, we start right now by making the suggestion of closer ties to our governments.

That is a fantastic idea!!!!

I think the God Bless America jargon is just more propaganda. Perhaps you know that "God Bless America" is a historical phrase, too. That doesn't excuse its overuse today, though.

s for all

Ok.... God's relation to the U.S. is in question, clearly. Bush seems to know all about it. It's nice that someone knows, but if I had my choice, it wouldn't be Bush or Pat Robertson (this very very very very very very very narrow-minded, if you ask me, Christian).

In the headlines today it's been ruled that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is now unconstitutional because of the words "Under God."

We're supposed to have a division of Church and State(government). Why!?? Because we thought the English took it too far, apparently. Makes me think about the children who try so hard not to become like their parents and then BAM!!! "Gee, I sound just like my mother..."

Why do we often sound just like a nation tied in religion!?? Our money says IN GOD WE TRUST. Christmas is a national-- GOVERNMENT holiday. Federal workers have days like Christmas and Easter off-- with pay.

But Bush and Robertson like it that way.

Thank you all for enlighten me

From the bill Moyers link on the previous page:

"...all those moralistic ideologues in Washington sporting the flag in their lapels while writing books and running Web sites and publishing magazines attacking dissenters as un-American"

I heard someone say recently (I'm sorry, I can't remember who, but I know they were talking about the current situation) that the most un-American thing you can do is to call another American un-American.

YEAH!!!! Good point.

I still wish they hadn't co-opted *American*. I'm Canadian but part of North America and the Americas. They should be something else. *Yanks* is insulting to some and there doesn't seem to be a single word for US citizen.

*joins in for not joining in* I was about to go to Iceland some years ago - but they are NATO as well...

I heard Iceland has a huge American base, but that people are only allowed off the base into general Icelandic civilization two at a time. I don't know if it's true, but it might be a good way to limit cultural impact.

It may be a way to keep US soldiers away from *Black Death*! That's a drink the natives concocted that involves beer with grain alcohol poured into it!

I know what I'm doing tonight!

The story goes that only *near-beer* was legal in Iceland until a few years back. The locals regularly would put in a shot of alcohol to bring it up to something potent. When the law was changed and the beer was brought up to normal alcohol levels, the locals continued with the practice because they liked the taste. The resulting drink apparently may be used for removing varnish or women's undergarments!



Sorry for getting off topic.

I had a friend at college from Iceland, he invited us to drink "Black death" together with dried fish. Strong stuff.
I think they never loan words for new things, like we do in swedish -we have a lot of englishbased words for different things, they invent new icelandic words instead. They are the last true vikings I believe

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