There's one thing that has been bothering me for a loooooooong time.

That's all we here from so-called "Patriotic" Americans is that America isn't pulling it's weight, that the US needs to "do more" and that we "owe" the world more.

In the recent defeat of the [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8812-2002Apr18.html]ANWR Bill[/url] in the Senate, this single quote from that highly decorated Vietnam Veteran and "patriotic" Senator John Kerry says it all:

[i]John Kerry (D-MA), who has led the filibuster against refuge drilling, said [u]the United States has 3 percent of the world's oil and uses 25 percent of the world's supply[/u]. [/i]


[b]I have had ENOUGH of this America-the-wasteful-selfish-aggressive-brute mentality - ESPECIALLY from our own people!!!![/b][pissed]

The United States has [b]less than 5%[/b] of the world's population and yet accounts for:

25% of UN Peacekeeping costs
30% of the Pan American Health Organization budget
25% of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization costs
14% of UNESCO budget
25% of the UN World Meteorological Organization funding
13% of WHO operating budget
20% of the World Bank Group funding
30% of the World Food Program
25% of the United Nations total budget
28% of the entire world's GDP

We are the world's policemen, breadbasket, grocery store, soup kitchen, free clinic, homeless/immigrant shelter and technological catalyst.  

We have the best biomedical research facilities, the best health-care centers and the finest Universities in the world.

We have the best-trained doctors, the brightest scientists, most Nobel Prize winners and are the world's leader all aspects of science and technology.

We are spearheading the development of new vaccines and antibiotics that will be given to the rest of the world.

We are the last bastion of true Freedom and Liberty and Individualism left in the world.

People risk their lives EVERY DAY to cross our border for the greatness that too many of us take for granted.

Nowhere else can you have as much freedom to express your views, worship your God, earn as much as your abilities allow, own what you want and defend what you have more than in the United States of America.

When a nation like Kuwait is invaded, the US leads the defense.

When Bosnia erupts in chaos, the US leads the peace-enforcers.

When Africa is repeatedly plagued by disease, the US funds and supplies the majority of medical care.

When Israel and Palestinians are killing each other, the US is looked to by the world to broker a peace agreement.

To see the utter disregard for our achievements and our well-earned position of leadership and responsibility in the world and instead see the constant and growing disdain and hatred around the world and within our own people for America just turns my stomach to no end.

We should NOT be persecuted or blamed for using more resources and having more wealth than the rest of the world. WE EARNED IT!!

WE DESERVE the richness we have and we have NOTHING to feel guilty or ashamed for.

[b]Yes. The United States Of America IS the greatest nation that ever was and ever will be.[/b]

[marines]

Hell yeah

Well said.  Good comparisons.  This one is getting sent to some friends!

Speak the word Brother!!!

Damn skippy.

Can I get a halleluiah people?

No need to go any further

Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!
[b]America! America![/b] God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brother-hood from sea to shining sea.

Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stress
A thorough-fare of freedom beat across the wilderness!
[b]America! America![/b] God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.

Oh, beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loves, and mercy more than life!
[b]America! America![/b]May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness, and ev'ry gain divine.

Oh, beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!
[b]America! America![/b] God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brother-hood from sea to shining sea.

HELL YA

Dynamite post. What pisses ME off about the middle east fiasco is that everyone clamors for the U.S. to do something-hell, I think the TWO FACED SAUDITRASH ought to be getting off their dead, fat asses and be doing more. If peace is what is truly sought there, THEY should be the brokers. Problem is, they just can't get over the slavejews kicking their arab asses every time they tangle.[argue]

I am really satcong [:)]

The_Macallan,

Outstanding post. Have never heard it put so well.......

[marines]

The larger question is WHY THE HELL DO WE CONTINUE TO FUND OUR DESTROYERS. WHO,UN, etc???
Now that. Granted not all of us do, but America is a nation born of certain and intrinsic ideas that allow her to exist in the manner which she does. These Ideals include ideas which allow her people to Produce a great amount of wealth. And some of the people who have produced or gotten this wealth are using to fund the very things which would see America and her ideas and what she represents destroyed in the best manner of Leukemia.  People don't seem to understand the relationships between these ideas and so go around shooting themselves in the foot in their need to HELP.  Will Rogers would have a field day with this.

Ben

Great post, man!

Tip of the hat to you Mac.

Excellent post!

Thanks for the clarification [b]Hun[/b].
You're right, John Kerry was awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star and PH, NOT the CMOH.

I'll fix that mistake.

Another viewpoint


Place Your Bets,

Mark P. Mills hit a grand slam with his article in IE #42 entitled “Getting It Wrong: Energy Forecasts and the End-of-Technology Mindset”. This was an outstanding article in every respect! Because most people, especially scientists, do not understand economics, it needs to be emphasized that the choice of an energy source must be based solely on economics. Furthermore, not only is oil not going to get scarcer ﷓ it is very probably an inexhaustible source of fuel. There is good reason for this ﷓ fossil fuels are not “fossil” in origin at all – they are fundamental hydrocarbon building blocks from the Earth’s original formation [1]. Microbes merely use oil as a source of fuel, leaving behind their characteristic signatures, hence the fossil misnomer. (The geologists currently have it wrong, but give them 10 or 20 years, and they will come around. They accepted the Pangea paradigm in less time.) Many oil wells around the world are continually refilling themselves. Oil is far, far more abundant than presently estimated, with the largest reserves in our own Gulf of Mexico.

There is no global warming ﷓ this is not just a case of bad science ﷓ it is juvenile. One has only to think back to the Malthusian experts who were predicting global cooling [2] in the late 1970s. (But hey, whatever it takes to extort the taxpayer’s dollar for funding!) When it comes to long-term climate prediction models, engineers know better – they laugh and shake their heads. Most non-linear computer models are little better than useless. Engineers know this because they must produce ﷓ they must actually deliver the goods, unlike researchers who need only publish results, accurate or not. So engineers develop alternative approaches to get reasonable results based on the empirical data. They fit their models to the experimental data. Unfortunately this is not possible with predictions. Would anyone care to predict the next scare tactic, once the global warming scare has fizzled?

....cont.


Finally, I was shocked and dismayed at the vitriolic anger displayed by Jed Rothwell in his hysterical rebuttal to the Mills article (same IE issue). It seemed to me that Rothwell had a personal axe to grind, as all objectivity was absent. He railed about there being a grave shortage of energy in two-thirds of the world, but he didn’t seem to realize that this is a direct result of government corruption. Unrestrained capitalism always works ﷓ witness the rebirth of the Russian economy. With the advent of electrical power deregulation, the cost of electricity continues to drop in my home state. There are two reasons for this. First, unlike California, the State of Texas encourages business development and free enterprise. We have a surplus of electrical energy producers. Second, the Texas electrical (AC) power grid does not connect across state lines, so the federal government cannot step in and meddle in our affairs. Cold Fusion is not yet a qualified energy source, but a frontier science for exploration. Rothwell seemed agitated that there was no mention made of it by Mills, but neither did Mills mention the bottomless money pit of hot fusion. Mills was addressing proven energy sources, not laboratory experiments.

In 1990, the Malthusians lost a thousand dollar bet to the Cornucopians that the cost of five strategic metals would decline increase over a ten-year period [2]. (Like water, the supply of metals is in essence, inexhaustible.) Perhaps Rothwell would care to put his money where his mouth is and work out a bet between himself and Mills on the future price trend and availability of oil?

Energy consumption will continue to increase both domestically and abroad, as other countries throw off their socialistic shackles [3]. The populations of the Third-world will level off as they enter into an industrial-based society, just as was the case for America in the early twentieth century. Oil will continue to become cheaper and more plentiful. Optimistic predictions will always prevail over pessimistic ones. Readers who enjoyed Mills’ article will also find these references quite interesting:

[1] Thomas Gold, The Deep Hot Biosphere, © 1999, Copernicus Books, N.Y.
[2] Ronald Bailey, ECO-SCAM: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse, © 1993, St. Martin’s Press, N.Y.
[3] Peter Huber, HARD-GREEN: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists, © 1999, Basic Books, N.Y.

W Cantrell

what the Mac said!

I don't have to apologize to anyone for being an American.  This country puts it on the line 24x7 to keep the rest of the world going.

Too bad the politicians are in a position to keep us hostage to the oil cartel, while riding their expense free (including fuel), taxpayer provided transportation.

the klintons sold out this country and helped generate a group of enviro-terrorists that are worse than any mid-east cells, and dasshole and the dems's continue the tradition.

Another thing that pisses me off: When people say "America uses more than it's fair share of the worlds resorces."

So, I guess, if we use to much resorces and everyone else is pissed about it: The middle east and Venisualia (SP) must WANT us to STOP BUYING THIER OIL???? Cuba et. al. WANT US TO STOP BUYING THIER SUGAR? Austrailia, New Zealand, and Bazil msut WANT US TO STOP BUYING BEEF FROM THEM??? They WANT US to stop buying beef from Brazil so Brazil can stop cutting down thier own rainforest to make room for cows?

Heck, I guess Russia and South Africa feel it's UNFAIR for us to be thier single largest income by buying so much METAL and rare minarals from them? I mean, It is pretty rude of us to buy so much "-um" raw meterials from them and not think of all the poor county's in mid-africa that could use unproccessed ores sitting around in the middle of the desert! Oh, and WTF are S.A. and Russia gonna be able to do with our $ anyway? It's practically WORTHLESS TO THEM! I mean, all they can do with it is exchange it for worthless crap like food, medical supplies, etc. . . .

We REALLY should stop being so dang selfish, and keep our $ and support and technology (and military, and food, and medicine, and. . .), and let these other countries keep thier worthless, unrefild oil, ore, grasslands, cows, etc.

-Justin

Sorry mon. I had to quit reading it. It was hurting my head [;)]

Halleluiah!!!

You left out the IMF, Peace Corp, other governmental orgs I can't think of off-hand, as well as a ZILLION different NGO's and charities related to medicine, children, hunger, agricultural enhancement, educational grants and scholarships, disease prevention, etc, etc. No nation is more giving. The Europeans may give more from a governmental perspective, but they give less to charity (having a higher tax burden, they expect the government to take care of everything).

Just ask the people around the world who depend on our imports of all the resources mentioned, (plus other assorted goods) what they think. Entire regional economies would collapse. As their customers we provide them with jobs and income they wouldn't have otherwise. Trade is to everyone's mutual benefit.