Posted on 12/29/2004 5:07:39 AM PST by IronJack
bump
They also demand the right to vote in our Presidential elections. For some reason, though, US citizens shouldn't demand a reciprocal right.
Lest we forget, Kofi wants a world wide UN tax, to be levied directly, without national permission. He'd like to put his hand into everyone's wallet and take out whatever he chooses.
Come now, sir, a bloodied nose is nothing among friends! A good discussion where ideas are put forth and bandied about makes us all think. And that's where solutions to problems sometimes emerge. Besides, it's no fun talking to yourself all the time. Don't be a stranger. Happy New Year!
I am betting we don't get to 1/3 before some leftist wag claims Egelund's comments were a clever ruse to prompt us to give even more. They'll put a positive spin on this nitwit's comments if they can.
Holiday beach vacation = imperialism? Perhaps on your planet, whichever it is.
I asked if the UN was your country because you seem to expend a great deal of energy defending the UN. A great deal. An unbelievably extraordinary amount.
But no more than what is routinely expended hereabouts on denouncing it, for instance in this thread.
That is very strange and exotic to a Scandinavian, indeed to most Europeans, who tend to view the UN as an imperfect organization which nonetheless performs many valuable functions and which both should and can be reformed. The fanatic demonization of the UN is almost as irrational as the rabid anti-americanism found in certain quarters. Both are marked by a substitution of ideology for facts.
Official counts are only 13 dead. Norway is at the bottom of everybody's list with respect to this disaster. That official count is days old and widely understood as a mere technicality. As many as 1,000 missing Norwegians are probably dead, according the Prime Minister. (In Norwegian:) http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/innenriks/article322032.ece We are a nation of 4,5 million. If you are mathematician then you will find it easy to compare the proporational impact to that on, say, the US by 9/11. I think Norway should give even more in money anyway considering all of that North Sea oil.
So far we've given somewhere between 50 and 75 million dollars in public and private donations (I haven't been keeping track); the public donation will be raised 'very considerably' according to the government. A ten-fold increase is not unrealistic.
Happy New Year back at you!
Why so many in Thailand? Just Thailand. Why not Europe? Why not Africa? Why not Sri Lanka, which was also hit?
Let me explain the difference between the US and Europe: Europeans are peasants and Americans are blacksmiths. Europeans trust their masters and view them with a bit of mystery and awe. If pressed, they might oppose feudalism, but they love their own master.
Americans have no need of the lord, they distrust everything the lord does.
So, Europe looks at the UN based on its intentions and its language. Europe will never criticize the enlightened despot. The US sees the UN as useless. It largely does nothing. What good it does is vastly overshadowed by the platform it provides to tinpot dictators, terrorist regimes and pompous diplomats.
A useless institution that is also an expensive one is, by definition, corrupt. Americans don't bear corrupt institutions. We tore down corruption from Tammany Hall to the relatively benign kind of the CT governor.
And now we know that (a) the institution of the UN is hugely corrupt, being used by people for their own vast material gain and (b) there is no real remorse for it.
Europeans tolerate the corruption of their high officials. Mistresses, graft, exemption from laws and rules of behavior -- these are all the perks of office in most of the world. Not here. We don't put up with it (in general) and it constitutes a scandal when it's uncovered.
So you weren't kidding? I seriously have to defend my dead compatriots, many of whom are kids, from the charge of being 'imperialists'?
Very well. It may have escaped your notice but Thailand is one of the world's premier tourist destinations owing to its climate, geography, culture, food, and prices. It has become a tradition for many Scandinavians to vacation there in the cold and dark wintertime. However, you are wrong to assume that they don't also travel elsewhere. The #1 destination for Norwegians is and remains Spain. But maybe that is imperalism too?
As to Sri Lanka, it is not a tourist resort comparable to Thailand, in part because of the civil war. Norwegians in particular are hated by extremists for our ongoing efforts to broker peace; for instance, the embassy regularly closes due to terrorist threats.
I shall leave you to your views about the UN, misguided though I find them. If you will, I have finally run out of energy.
But this pronouncement cannot go unanswered:
Europeans tolerate the corruption of their high officials.
Balderdash. Maybe in BerlusconItaly Inc., but certainly not in general, and Northern Europe may well be the least politically corrupt region on earth.
Yeah? Well, welcome to the club, pal. Welcome to the club.
It may have escaped your notice but Thailand is one of the world's premier tourist destinations owing to its climate, geography, culture, food, and ...
brothels.
Norwegians in particular are hated by extremists for our ongoing efforts to broker peace;
Oh, really?Maybe they're tired of your countrymen's paternalistic imperialist condescention. I never knew Europe stuck their noses in places all around the world.
for instance, the embassy regularly closes due to terrorist threats.
Well, apparently your countrymen have done a bang-up job.
I shall leave you to your views about the UN, misguided though I find them. If you will, I have finally run out of energy.
Really? With all those European vacation days, you'd think you'd be full of energy.
Balderdash. Maybe in BerlusconItaly Inc., but certainly not in general, and Northern Europe may well be the least politically corrupt region on earth.
Balderdash??? Well, I was thinking of France, which hasn't had an uncorrupt president since at least Mitterand, but if you want to talk about Northern Europe, I've got one word for you:
STATOIL
Bump!
All right pseudo-dude, have the last word then. Evidently post 214 was spot on.
Thanks, I hope the same for you!
Also thanks for the link, but I'm afraid I quit reading after this:
A week ago, despite just one day having passed since the Asian tsunami, with the reported death toll one tenth of what it is now believed to be, and ignoring the fact that public holidays are never the easiest times to start organising an aid effort, Mr Egeland saw fit to dismiss the reaction of the international community as “stingy”.
The fact that he wasn't talking about the reaction to the tsunami disaster at all has been pointed out ad nauseam, including in this thread. I am surprised that the Times hasn't caught on.
Now I must dash! Take care.
Wow! You're really in need of my approval, aren't you?
Thanks for that laugh
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