post your sexy pics here

[Dead Winter]

But you see, because YOU said it Derek, it's ok with them. Americans don't give a shit about the message, just how it's presented to them and by whom it's given. Even if it's complete bullshit, they'll follow you like sheep in the land of the free, home of the brave. Want proof? Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.

But say something they don't like, even if it's true, all you'll get is sarcasm and hands clasped to their ears while yelling LALALALALALALA!!!!! America is a nation of children having a pissing contest with everyone around them.

Whatever, they can do what they want. If they want to look over their shoulder the rest of their lives, that's fine with me. I'm quite comfortable walking down the street at any time, day or night, without having to worry about being shot. Let them keep shooting each other...that just means fewer idiots in the world.

 

[Lord Foul]

You're all using the term 'American' like we are all cookie-cutter copies of one another. Surely you enlightened Euros know better than to stereotype groups of people.

Dead Winter, I always get the impression when you rant against America that you are compensating for some deep seated self-loathing at having been born here and feel the need to shout from the rooftops how you have been uplifted from savagery to live amongst a superior race of people. I can't say for certain if that is true, but I'm offering you some perspective on how your posts read sans verbal cues and body language.

 

[Dead Winter]

Nah it's not true...in fact there are a number of things about the US that I miss. The organization and lack of bureaucracy is so prevalent that it makes me ponder moving back sometimes. Sometimes.

I shouldn't even have to mention that I don't feel this way about all Americans, and that not all Americans are like that. However, whether you want to believe it or not, a very large number of Americans are the epitome of everything I described above. I'm not stereotyping, but there is truth in every stereotype. You all seem like intelligent people, so I'm assessing that no one will take offense to what I've said. However, if someone actually does take offense, then maybe it's deserved.

The truth is, I have just as many gripes and complaints about Italian people, but the only person who could understand where I'm coming from would be Derek, since he's lived here.

What I loathe about Americans is how they wave the freedom of speech flag in your face every day, and yet when someone speaks out against America and the proclivities of a large number of her people, you'd think that I were wiping my ass with the American flag and calling for her destruction. I criticize the US because there is much to criticize, whether Americans want to hear it or not and whether or not they want to believe it. Also, I'd say I've sacrificed and done more for my country than most people here, so if they don't like what I've got to say then that's their problem. I've paid my dues.

We have this nationalism ingrained into us even when we're being critical of ourselves. I've never been good at politics and I never will be. I call things how I see them. Granted, you have a point that my posts are quite pointed sometimes and come across as a bit brash but I've never been one to mince words and I never will be. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it's most probably a duck. Americans take things too personally and then blow it out of proportion, especially when they disagree with a point of view. When they're backed into a corner and faced with the truth with no ability to retort, they resort to sarcasm like a child. This is what I loathe the most.

 

[Dead_Lioness]

The US is freaking awesome, it's the 'corporate America' that I despise and all its products.

Owning guns in my opinion, is useless. but then again, owning so many shoes as I do, is also useless.
I hate arguing against gun-laws in the US, because I'm not from here and I obviously do not understand that 'culture' and history of this country
like most locals. Guns and their laws have been a huge deal in the US since the day it was founded, and changing it now, seems as impossible as making weed legal.
The general culture wouldn't handle it.

Owning guns as a hobby, and be extremely careful about it- GREAT.
owning a gun (or guns) as a 'life-style', showing them off and buying them instead of more important things that you probably need more in life: - then you're just an idiot.

 

[Dead Winter]

Owning guns as a hobby, and be extremely careful about it- GREAT.
owning a gun (or guns) as a 'life-style', showing them off and buying them instead of more important things that you probably need more in life: - then you're just an idiot.

And this is exactly my point. People don't want to just own handguns; they want to be afforded the possibility to use them on other people. There is no other use for a handgun than to maim or kill another human being. They hide behind the Second Amendment and liken handguns to stamp collecting. It's complete bullshit and a cop-out. Want proof? How about this:

What would you say to being able to own a handgun but only being able to fire it at a firing range? For home defense, you couldn't use it against an intruder unless he were also brandishing a handgun or other firearm. In other words, if you shoot a burglar who has a knife and is breaking into your home, you would go to jail for misuse of deadly force. Would you be ok with that, America? Of course they wouldn't, and do you know why? Because many handgun owners hide behind the Second Amendment and claim to be "law-abiding citizens", when they're really violent citizens waiting for an excuse to discharge their pistol at another human being and not having to feel guilty about killing someone if society says it's ok. If it's not true, then tell me another use for a handgun. I'm all ears.

If you want to brandish firearms and have the possibility to use them against other people, then stop playing Army like a bunch of faggots and join the military.

 

[Dead_Lioness]

..if anything this country needs to be EXTREMELY strict about gun license and who can own one. (and I bet you 80% of people who actually own one, shouldn't.)
It seems too goddamn easy here to buy a gun.. what a joke.

 

[derek]

Europe wins. Eat dick Yankee fucks.

 

[Dead_Lioness]

Europe wins. Eat dick Yankee fucks.

OH NO YOU DEE'INT!

 

[slashvanyoung]

there are a number of things about the US that I miss. The organization and lack of bureaucracy is so prevalent that it makes me ponder moving back sometimes. Sometimes.

Haha, if you miss organization and bureaucracy, just move up here and you'll have more of that than you could ever imagine.

 

[Dead Winter]

Haha, if you miss organization and bureaucracy, just move up here and you'll have more of that than you could ever imagine.

No no, I miss the organization and LACK of bureaucracy found in the US. It's so much easier to get shit done in the US than in Italy. But like you said, Germany and the Scandinavian countries are quite organized, so I'd probably give them a shot before moving back, hehe.

However, there is something to be said for a relaxed atmosphere. It has some good qualities.

 

[Lord Foul]

..if anything this country needs to be EXTREMELY strict about gun license and who can own one. (and I bet you 80% of people who actually own one, shouldn't.)
It seems too goddamn easy here to buy a gun.. what a joke.

Well, we make it easy to get a driver's license, and automobile accidents kill more people in the US every year than firearms, even if we include suicide. Smoking kills 10 times as many people as car accidents each year, and we don't require a license of any kind to purchase tobacco products. I don't have numbers on how many deaths per year are attributable to bad parenting, but we obviously don't require a license for that either.

 

[Anvil]

Fuck you all. Canada rules you.

 

[Lord Foul]

LOL @ Commonwealth realms.

 

[Dead Winter]

Well, we make it easy to get a driver's license, and automobile accidents kill more people in the US every year than firearms, even if we include suicide. Smoking kills 10 times as many people as car accidents each year, and we don't require a license of any kind to purchase tobacco products. I don't have numbers on how many deaths per year are attributable to bad parenting, but we obviously don't require a license for that either.

Yes, and at 16 you can drive a Hummer if you want. In Europe the minimum age for a driver's license is 18 and you can't drive anything bigger than a specified engine size until you're 21. This is why you see very few retarded teenagers causing multiple car pileups here because they don't know how to drive.

The poverty level is much lower here, due to the health care system and educational system.

You can smoke and drink at 16 in Italy and we have a very high life expectancy rate.

Again, sometimes regulation makes sense if there is a great number of idiots in a society. Sometimes we have to call a spade a spade. Whether we want to believe it or not, sometimes it's better to regulate when the other option just isn't working. In my opinion, the lax restrictions and lack of regulation in the US has bred this attitude of "freedom to be stupid". "It's my right to be fat and stupid!!!" Well, yes it is. But as long as you share this mindset, you can't start complaining about health care and education. It's either one or the other. Something needs to be regulated and controlled.

 

[Dead_Lioness]

Well, we make it easy to get a driver's license, and automobile accidents kill more people in the US every year than firearms, even if we include suicide. Smoking kills 10 times as many people as car accidents each year, and we don't require a license of any kind to purchase tobacco products. I don't have numbers on how many deaths per year are attributable to bad parenting, but we obviously don't require a license for that either.

Dave, sometimes your 'devil's advocate's game is a tad silly.
Cars may kill more people, but they were invented to transport us from one place to another, NOT TO KILL per se. (like guns)
Parenting is a wonderful thing, and was not created to KILL CHILDREN (like guns)

Cigarettes are idiotic, and if it was up to me I would have banned them all together.

'Guns' were made to kill people. Pure and simple.
I'm with Chris on this one, if there is another use for them- i'm all ears.
As far as I'm concerned: 'a killing device' needs far more strict rules on who gets one and who doesn't.

 

[JBroll]

As I mentioned earlier, I grew up around every type of firearm imagineable that was available for consumer use. I'm not some fucking tree-hugging hippie. I personally feel that banning or having extremely strict restrictions on handguns would save many lives. As Karmic said, that means that the penalty for having a handgun would be very steep, thereby curving much of the problem itself.

If that had worked out well for the places I mentioned above, you might be onto something.

I don't understand why Americans are so insecure about Europeans thinking they're intrinsically better.

It's not insecurity, it's annoyance - "Yeah, yeah, I fucking get it, you're from a different goddamn continent... do you want a fucking cookie for that?"

I'm not spouting my mouth off on how the other side of the pond should handle Muslim immigration, am I? Start soliciting advice for your own domestic problems from the "average American" upon which everyone's view of the country is so hopelessly dependent and you'll see just why it gets annoying.

"Teen pregnancy? Jesus can fix that. Well, not the teen part, ur the preggint part, but... Jesus!"

Fortunately, DW is fine because he doesn't use trite, predictable blathering to attack stereotypical Americans...

...sheep...

...sarcasm and hands clasped to their ears while yelling LALALALALALALA!!!!! America is a nation of children having a pissing contest with everyone around them...

Erm... I mean, it's a good thing he doesn't keep repeating nonsense that wasn't worth taking seriously the first time around as if somehow the only problem is that his first try didn't sink in to our dense American skulls...

And this is exactly my point. People don't want to just own handguns; they want to be afforded the possibility to use them on other people. There is no other use for a handgun than to maim or kill another human being. They hide behind the Second Amendment and liken handguns to stamp collecting. It's complete bullshit and a cop-out. Want proof? How about this:

... no, wait, I mean... oh, fuck it.

Jeff

 

[Lord Foul]

Again, sometimes regulation makes sense if there is a great number of idiots in a society.

You have a little foam on your cheek there.

Italy has a similar number of automobile fatalities per 100,000 population as the US. Slightly lower, but then they own fewer cars per 1000 population to balance things out. Italy has far fewer firearm deaths per 100,000, but what works in a country of 60 million doesn't necessarily work in a country with 5 times the population and 30 times the area.


Karen - you realize you can just post a sexy pic and all the boys will forget what we were talking about, right?

 

[derek]

I'll take that cookie now.

 

[Dead Winter]

 

[derek]

You have a little foam on your cheek there.

Italy has a similar number of automobile fatalities per 100,000 population as the US. Slightly lower, but then they own fewer cars per 1000 population to balance things out. Italy has far fewer firearm deaths per 100,000, but what works in a country of 60 million doesn't necessarily work in a country with 5 times the population and 30 times the area.

Reason as you wish but we all still hate you and your President George BUSH.