Why Brits are better than Yanks

[Roy Hunter]

Bill Hicks - supremely sarcastic, ironical and much missed. The exception that proved the rule.

Bill Hicks only really made it big in the US once he came to the UK. I saw him play the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow back in nineteen canteen - he was trying out material for the UK audience and he performed for about three hours. I was in physical pain for about three days afterwards from laughing so much.

He made a big hit with Channel 4 here, after that the US networks started paying attention to him.

[Cap'nsam]

Bill Hicks only really made it big in the US once he came to the UK. I saw him play the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow back in nineteen canteen.

I think I was at the same show - as far as I know, he only was there once. It's a small world, but I wouldn't like to polish it.

[Cap'nsam]

I live in the Loudoun Valley. There is a volcanic plug called Loudoun Hill about 5 miles away, but you can see it from all over the valley, because all the roads that go vaguely in that direction point straight at the hill.

I just found this and would like to point out that Roy forgot to mention a nice wee slaughter of Englishmen that occurred there during the Scottish Wars Of Independence. That's right - Wars. (And we won.) That's history. Anglo-Saxons and 'Murricans can google it to find out more.
P.S. For the purposes of this post, please reset my nationality to Scots. Normal Earthling/Human designation will resume soon.

[Edited by bored Admin to fix the quote tags]

[Roy Hunter]

Not too hot on the whole 'slaughter of Englishmen' business, to be honest. Born in England myself, you see. My support for Independence is primarily about proper social justice, and stopping us from being a client state of the US military-industrial complex. Nothing to do with ancient grievances against our neighbours - more to do with the current ones.

Oh, and this is how the quote tags work:

Code: Select all

[quote]Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.[/quote]

You've got to put the [/quote] tag on the other end, or it doesn't work.

[daftbeaker]

[Edited by bored Admin to fix the quote tags]

Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, we're being repressed!

[Roy Hunter]

Careful, or I'll turn your Avatar upside down and change your permissions so you can't fix it.

[daftbeaker]

Careful, or I'll turn your Avatar upside down and change your permissions so you can't fix it.

Fascist

[bonsaiherb]

Guess you've thrown in the towel or is the kilts.

No responsible feedback for a week. Better to get to washing those lazy British linens or the woolies of the Scots.
YANKS win!

[Cardinal Fang]

Interesting stats from the Huffington Post aboout 15 ways the US is best (at being worse), including:

- The US is one of only 4 countries in the world not to give paid maternity leave (the others being Lesotho, Swaziland, and New Guinea)
- The US is the only "advanced economy that doesn't require companies to give paid vacation time
- The US is the only "advanced economy that doesn't guarantee paid sick leave
- The US spends more on military expenditure than any other country
- The US exports more weapons than any other country
- The US imprisons a higher proportion of its citizens than any other country
- The US is the only country that comes close to having nearly as many guns as people
- The US spends more on healthcare than any other industrialised country
BUT
- More babies die the same day they are born in the US than in any other industrialised country
- The US has the highest levels of inequality of any industrialised country

CF

[bonsaiherb]

Cardinal Fang,

No argument on many of your points, but some are a bit wavy.
Vacation time and maternity time yes. Prisons and gun ownership probably yes.

The US spends more on military expenditure than any other country. NOPE
By GDP we spend some 3.8 percent of our income, UAE, Russia and Saudi Arabia spend more. S. Korea and India are slowly edging up to that level.
The reason places like S. Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France and Britain are not up there is because you wankers depend upon our umbrella and fools that we are we give it to you.

I believe the same statistics can be given for your next comment.
The US exports more weapons than any other country YUP! Or is it our GDP?

Again it is a matter of population and statistics. Europe beats the cake and the US., only comes in as 14th.
Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, France and the UK all have had their dirty hands in arm esports as well. Think back on Iraq and some of its ‘special needs.’ EUROPE came to answer it. Singapore also exports a great deal of ‘black market arms.’ OOPS I left out Germany which had special deals with Iraq and Iran as well.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-inf ... er-%24-GDP

On the health care issue and he fact that we lose more infants than we should. YES!
Not so sure about the inequality issue, except Americans may be too addicted to a welfare state than trying to get ahead. Europe has its own inequalities. Ask most Muslims in France or Germany, or the Romany that are considered next to vermin in many countries in Europe.

Nationalism is on the rise and I doubt that the Europe you see today will be the one that will exist four years from now.

One further note, we are also behind most Industrialized Nations in Internet speed and affordability. That is true, but it is a matter of most of these countries subsidize these entities’ more that we do. Taxation is another matter.

Sometimes simple graphs or numbers do not always add up to the truth.

Last note: WAR! You did not mention. America has been quite a warfare state for a long time. At last count I read that since our founding there have been 15-30 years of non-warfare. Mind you this includes our own hideous treatment of Native Americans. Trouble is, aside from Jimmy Carter's four years I have trouble tracking down the other peaceful years.
Mind you England has had its share as well so I will call that one a draw.

http://www.vox.com/2014/9/23/6829399/23 ... rprise-you

Go to map #2 The British have invaded almost every country on earth. Good disclaimer on that, and you did begin the task a lot earlier than the US. In Europe, you only missed Sweden!

[gronank]

In Europe, you only missed Sweden!

And the only reason for that was that the germans got a whiff of what they where planning and pre-empted them with about a week by invading Norway in 1940.

[bonsaiherb]

I hate to post a follow-up to my recent one, but this is important. It is also very sad.
Number Of Homeless Children In America Surges To All-Time High:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/1 ... 69994.html

I pray that Europe is doing a better job on this issue.

[Roy Hunter]

I hate to post a follow-up to my recent one, but this is important. It is also very sad.
Number Of Homeless Children In America Surges To All-Time High:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/1 ... 69994.html

I pray that Europe is doing a better job on this issue.

No, I am afraid not. We are also heading back in the wrong direction.

There is no demonstrable causal link between 'Austerity' and homelessness, but there sure as hell is a correlation. Housing has never been so expensive or insecure, and young families tend to be the most financially stretched. As the gap between richest and poorest gets wider, the relative price of housing goes up, and because wages, benefits and tax credits are not keeping pace with real inflation, these are the people most at risk of homelessness.

Along with people with enduring mental health problems, learning difficulties, disabilities, all the people the Welfare State was supposed to protect in the first place.

[bonsaiherb]

Roy Hunter wrote:

Along with people with enduring mental health problems, learning difficulties, disabilities, all the people the Welfare State was supposed to protect in the first place.

Yes, I have been there trying to be proactive and be an ombudsman as well in WA. state. The entrenched 'service providers' proved to be incestuous, corrupt and for the most part didn't give a crap about the people they were supposed to serve. Those that did, like myself got burned out after a few years and quit. Things have only gotten worse decade by decade.

When and if, the economic bubble finally bursts it will be butt ugly. No more entitlements, no more food stamps? No more Social Security checks, child welfare benefits in Canada and elsewhere. Worse yet, even (competent?) young people barely know how to survive on little. I might have a better chance surviving than my children do.

My homepagehttp://sweetgeodes.com/senft/ has some good links on this matter.

including how we deal with thehttp://sweetgeodes.com/senft/?page_id=2020. homeless.

[Griffin]

There is no demonstrable causal link between 'Austerity' and homelessness, but there sure as hell is a correlation.

The fact that no one has demonstrated evidentialy a causal link is disgraceful. We know that people are being made homeless by rent rises and bedroom tax, but no one can be bothered to prove it. We know that use of foodbanks has risen due to austerity, but that has not been proven either, so the government can just go on saying that more people love the food handed out by food banks or it's been made fashionable or more people know about them now, or whatever other rubbish they want to use to dupe the voters. I can't stand the lies.