America... The last Super Power

[NUKE]

Originally posted by Toad
In short, if this is how Ireland is now, it's because the IRISH chose to be this way.


Significant in these complaints about a McDonald's on the sacred home turf is that no one.. .NO ONE... forces any country to accept a McDonald's. US Marines don't land and hold the perimeter while the drive-thru is built.

Again, it's a CHOICE, a free choice, that some most likely LOCAL investor or some entrepreneur makes with a view towards improving his or his family's life.

So, most of it rings hollow. Don't want a McDonald's? Take your business somewhere else. No customers and eventually McD will fold and move on.

It's amusing to an extent. People seem to want to copy our culture but don't want to admit that they do.

Yet, obviously, the freedom to choose isn't exclusively American. It's something that's felt in the heart of just about every man in every country who looked up into a clear starry night while holding his first born son, isn't it?

So choose what you like, like what you choose. Just don't try to blame US if you don't want a McDonald's in your town. Because that's a CHOICE that someone in your town made in all probability.

TOAD that's an excellent point. I love how people complain about American influence being "forced" on them.

Good point TOAD!

[Martlet]

Originally posted by Lizard3
BUT!!! If Walmart ever comes to town to start negotiations with the local government, get yer guns. Your local area economy is about to go out the window!

Walmart opens up, kiss yer women goodbye. The only place you can find em is WALMART.

Want to buy a little something for yourself? New Razor? Fishin Rod? To bad, your wife already spent all the money you made at WALMART. She got you a new welcome mat for the front door and the latest model of Chia Pet....as seen on TV.

Walmart comes to your town, kiss every mom and pop shop you can think of except fast food joints(those are next) goodbye. Grocery stores, fruit markets, butchers, tire shops, hardware stores, clothing stores. All gone. Ground to a pulp by the TRUE amerikan menace.

WALMART!!!

Arm yourselves!

hehe

Wal Mart makes women fat, wear polyester, have 8 kids, and lose 5 teeth.

[Arfann]

Originally posted by Martlet
Wal Mart makes women fat, wear polyester, have 8 kids, and lose 5 teeth.

More conservative claptrap. Everyone knows it's 5 kids and 8 teeth!!!

[Martlet]

Originally posted by Arfann
More conservative claptrap. Everyone knows it's 5 kids and 8 teeth!!!

I AM THE CONSERVATIVE CLAPTRAP KING!

[Toad]

Originally posted by Pongo
Give up the nukes then.
lol
Any way. You saying the world goes on as normal is kind of silly.

Haven't given them up yet but we've reduced them significantly since the Cold War. Obviously, we aren't going to give them up when the genocidal dictatorships like NK are working as hard as they can to get their own.

And I have this feeling even you don't want us to give them up while the Kim Jong Il's of the world have them.

Normal world? Look back over the last 200 years and remind me of when there wasn't fighting going on somewhere in the world. Sadly, it looks like armed conflict is a "normal" state of the world.

Kinda silly to think otherwise.

[lazs2]

i don't believe that swoop is against huge variety at cheap prices or getting his food rapidly.   Only the french would be against that.

nash... so.. you are saying that our empire is really not an empire since it takes no land but we should all fear the U.S. as an empire builder anyway?

Here is the deal... you should only fear the U.S. if you fear yourself.  oh.. wait..You can also fear it if you train terrorists or you sit on a gold toilet while you feed innocent countrymen to the shredder feet first.  other than that... you should be ok.... you don't even have to eat the fast food or buy the cheap goods.   or... like our little irish freind (and a lot of people here on the welfare roles) you can enjoy all the benifiets and still march around in the streets with "the U.S. is evil" signs and then drive home and have a good soak in the hot tub.
lazs

[Ripsnort]

Ahhh, Lazs! An artist in text format!  Quotable, thank you!

[Ripsnort]

[GrimCO]

Crow,

I wasn't tring to imply that PNAC is some super secret organization that only exhists in the minds of conspiracy theorists...

I was just trying to make the point that it seems highly unlikely that PNAC members could eventually organize a conspiracy to take over all branches of our government. I just can't for the life of me see a bunch of democrats hopping on the PNAC bandwagon and taking over.

[Ike 2K#]

Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
Wal-Mart and its newly acqured european subsidiaries are very popular in europe, especially the UK and Germany...

So there, we know you love it...

LOL

You should see wall mart in Los Angeles, California. Its gonna give you an impression as if you were in a "swap meet" or the black market. Wall Mart in Los Angeles is messy and you will see lots of clothes on the floor and toy boxes opened.

[crowMAW]

Originally posted by Toad
What appears to upset or worry you is that they appear to be achieving some of their goals AND you don't agree with their goals.

Right...do you believe we should use military force to regime change simply to set up new governments friendly to the US?

Pretty much how I felt during the 8 years of recent Democratic "hegemony" (had to laugh when I read that.. lots of words to pick from but "hegemony?").[/B]

Eh...it was a Bill Kristol word...but it fits.  Although I'm not sure I would categorize the Republican Congress as a group willing to capitulate to Clinton's will.  It seems we had some Federal government closings over budget fights during those years.

[GrimCO]

cpxxx,

Thanks for making an intelligent reply to the post. It was refreshing to say the least! Although I don't agree with some of your statements, I sure do respect your opinion.

As for the United States being a financial empire, I can agree with some of that. We definitely HAVE spread our influence throughout the world economically. However, most countries have benefited from this, and it was their own choosing to allow American companies to set up camp there.

The same argument could be made here in America. Japan owns A LOT of the major corporations here in the United States, and we have benefited from it financially because American employees work for these corporations. I'd venture to say Japan owns quite a few companies in Ireland as well. I still don't feel that we're a colony of Japan, however.

As for the rather ignorant fellow who made the statement "give up your nukes", I can't really believe he meant that. If he did, he's about as short sighted as they come. Would you really want America to completely give up it's entire nuclear arsenal? I'd like to know...

[Toad]

Crow: Right...do you believe we should use military force to regime change simply to set up new governments friendly to the US?

No, I don't. Apparently you don't either. However, I also don't believe that Iraq would have been invaded by the US IF Hussein had complied with the terms of the '91 ceasefire and the following 12 years of ~17 UN/SC resolutions to get them to comply.

However, there's a Democratic Presidential "hopeful"that appears to think so. Is Graham a PNAC? Have the PNAC's penetrated the Democratic leadership?

Presidential hopeful Graham slams Bush

"I think they made a mistake," the former Florida governor told ABC's "This Week," referring to the Bush administration's rejection of his plan to give the president authority to go after Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, three organizations Graham calls the "A-list" of terrorist groups that operate largely from Syria.

"They did not want that particular ball in their court," he said.

Saying that those three organizations need to go, Graham proposed telling the Syrians they could no longer harbor terrorists and should resolve the situation immediately.

"If they don't, then [the U.S.-led coalition that toppled the Taliban] will take care of it," he said. "The 'it' is not regime change; the 'it' is those terrorist organizations."

Looks like Graham adocates invading Syria to eliminate the terrorist organizations based there. I'm wagering that would take longer than the Iraq operation. What do you think?

Crow: Although I'm not sure I would categorize the Republican Congress as a group willing to capitulate to Clinton's will. It seems we had some Federal government closings over budget fights during those years.

Are you characterising the present Congress as willing to capitulate to Bush's will? If so, tell me why Bush's tax cut has been reduced by 30% and it's looking like it will be reduced even further.

I'm sorry, I just don't see this monolithic PNAC block rolling over all opposition in our government. I think the framer's set up a remarkably good system although I'm sure they never envisioned special interest groups to the extent we suffer them today. Nonetheless, PNAC doesn't rule the country. They're not even close. And they too will fade. Imagine, for instance if the Dems finally find a reasonable candidate and they win in 2004. How will the PNAC ogre react? Open revolution in the streets? I doubt it. They'll fade into the background again.

I just seem to be unable to lose any sleep over PNAC. I've got other real problems that keep me awake.

[crowMAW]

Originally posted by Toad
Presidential hopeful Graham slams Bush

If so, there's PNAC's in both parties, eh?

He's been singing that song for some time.  But he also voted against the Iraq Resolution because it was limited only to Saddam who was nowhere near the immediate threat as these terrorist groups in Bob's opinion: ''I will defy anybody to say that Iraq meets those standards. We're not talking about a threat 90 days from now.  We're not talking about a threat that may come a year from now if nuclear material is made available. I'm talking about a threat that could happen this afternoon.''  That's pretty un-PNAC.  

[Toad]

The point, however, is that Graham is essentially advocating an invasion of Syria if they do not do what we tell them to do about the terrorist groups.

Sounds pretty "PNAC" to me. Does it to you?

So, it's not just PNAC is it? Lots of people think alike while a whole 'nother lot of people think differently.

Sounds like the US to me. And I'm not losing sleep over it.