Posted on 12/31/2004 9:10:50 AM PST by CHARLITE
And the number countries that sent aid was [__]? in the amount of[$___]
"We have cars, planes, and electricity from thinkers and tinkerers, all Americans. These people weren't rocket scientists; we didn't have rockets back then. We invented the steam engine and the gas engine and then went on to invent computers."
Well, not exactly. Nobody is a more fervent fan of American invention and ingenuity, BUT...
Of all the inventions you list, "planes" are the only really American innovation. The term "electricity" was first coined by Gilbert, a 17th century Englishman, and the first electric motor built by Faraday, another Brit. Benz, a German, is generally credited with building the first gasoline-powered car, and Brown (British) the first gasoline engine. The steam engine was invented by Watt, a Scotsman, and the first real "computer" by Turing, another Brit. Rockets were developed by the Chinese, and a Russian, Tsiolkovsky, is considered the "Father of Modern Aeronautics", predating Goddard.
Americans have made critical developments in making all of these things more practical, efficient, and useful, but to say they wouldn't exist without us is a huge stretch.
Interesting.
If we are going to babysit the whole damn world and be responsible for every bad thing that happens to them. Why don't we just get full on into the UN then? Isn't that what they do?
"If we are going to babysit the whole damn world and be responsible for every bad thing that happens to them. Why don't we just get full on into the UN then? Isn't that what they do?"
Why don't we just take over the U.N. and get the corruption out!
To a certain extent I agree.
However I would like like to know why the so super humanitarian UN hasn't done something earlier to at least help mitigate something of this nature. They pull in billions of dollars but what good comes out except expensive meals and meetings around the world to discuss what to do about the US and so called global warming.
IT appears that they missed completely. They have been going after the peaceful giant because they feel inadequate but have proven their inadequacy by ingoring the people who need them most.
Rwanda comes to mind. Wasn't the toll over 800,000?
Why didn't the great UN at least try to devise some sort of tsunami plan or warning system for countries too poor.
What about placing huge concrete pilings under water outside beaches to slow down tsunami waves.
Do something. Just don't sit around and complain that the US is stingy when they have done nothing except demand more money.
Same place they are in regard to the Kyoto Treaty.
100,000 is a drop in the bucket to Americans Abortions every year.. Life is cheap on this planet.. Wipe your eyes and get real..
Are you pro-death..?.. or pro life..
This was indeed a terrible calamity, and I feel for those poor people. But I can understand why Charlite is “overly sensitive.” We have always been a very generous people -- to the point of being suckers -- yet we can do no right in so much of the world’s eyes. It is discouraging sometimes.
Now you're talking !!! Happy New Year. If there is bound to be a One World Order, hot damn, let us run it.
"on another thread, the liberals are no doubt saying that if President Bush had only signed the Kyoto treaty..............why"
You are right, the liberals aren't saying "kyoto" but several have attempted to blame the trouble on Global Warming.
http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2004/12/23/20041223_211200.htm
The more things change the more they stay the same. The following is an editorial given by Canadian Gordon Sinclair
in 1973
"The Americans" The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany.
It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help?
The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped. The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans. I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes. Come on... let's hear it!
Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws..are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here. When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble?
I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake. Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians.
And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke. This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped.
ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD. (c) 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR
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