Neither... that is why I live here, in Canada.
But you are ignoring the issue by nitpicking. Is this or is it not "Do as I say, not as I do"?
Perry
Putin slams "American Exceptionalism" in NYT Op-Ed
- Thread starter eznutz
- Start date
But you are ignoring the issue by nitpicking. Is this or is it not "Do as I say, not as I do"?
Perry
You make an imbecilic argument.
The point's made by Putin are valid.
Pretend they are YOUR suggestions. Now how good are they?
Yes, unlike Canada, no other country is perfect.
Anyway, I believe that the U.S. is much less imperfect than 99% of all the other countries despite the fact it might have a pimple on its ass.
Who taught you manners?
I never said none of his points are valid. I'm just asking reasonable and rational people (maybe that includes you too?) to remember the source.
As a wise man once said, if you have accept something on the basis of belief, it is because you have no evidence and cannot support it with facts... as is the case with, for example, organized religion (but don't go on a tangent, as you frequently do, about religion: that is another subject altogether!).
Perry
Well, I know you by your obfuscation and avoidance of issues in order not to have to deal with them.
Your true colors are showing.
The question here is about the United States of America.
Don't change the subject.
If you want to discuss other countries, that is OK... but don't attempt to hijack this discussion.
Perry
Sir Max Hastings agrees with you.
"The U.S. is the most important nation on earth. For all its shortcomings, it represents most of the values democracies cherish, just as Putin’s Russia embodies many of the evils from which they recoil."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...ion-Obama-Putin-swaggers-Moscow-dunghill.html
The U.S.A. has many times in the past faced such a big stick, several of those times all alone.
The USA is the cradle of democracy and its ideals are, today, ostensibly imitated by every nation in the world.
But that is not the problem, as I see it. The problem is that for the past 50 years or so, the governments of the USA have obliterated the principles upon which the Declaration of Independence is based. As I said above, ask Assange, Snowden and Manning for the details... or even Woodward and Bernstein and/or Daniel Ellsberg.
It seems to me that the USA has dug its own hole... that is why it now stands practically alone. It is a question of integrity and credibility and I, for one, lament the fall from principle.
Perry
Wrong. It's where he got stuck after revealing the US secret police was enormous, poorly controlled, spying on everyone and quite likely as black as any other.
Sad when the best defence is , "Yeah, but they're worse". Has Snowden yet been charged with any crime for acting as if freedom of information was something real and not just a feelgood to keep the citizenry passive?
Thank you Perry. Daniel Ellsberg was featured on PBS last week. If Nixon hadn't hired such clumsy plumbers, it's quite likely he could have engineered the same sort of smear that Snowden's coping with, and Ellsberg would have been jailed. Of course 911 paranoia has made many Americans quite content with being persecuted harassed and spied on in the name of preventing terrorism, and certainly uncaring about some whistleblower's complicated story as long as a bit of flag-waving goes with the persecution.
Too bad they don't see that only makes tougher, smarter more cunning and resourceful terrorists while eroding the very democracy they want to preserve. A democracy the world really needs as an example, but apparently is going to have to learn to manage without.
What is American Exceptionalism?
The vast majority of the people of this world since the beginning of time have never known the kind of liberty and freedom that's taken for granted every day in this country. Most people have lived in abject fear of their leaders. Most people have lived in abject fear of whoever held power over them. Most people in the world have not had plentiful access to food and clean water. It was a major daily undertaking for most people to come up with just those two basic things.
Just surviving was the primary occupation of most people in the world. The history of the world is dictatorship, tyranny, subjugation, whatever you want to call it of populations -- and then along came the United States of America. Pilgrims were the first to come here seeking freedom from all of that. They were oppressed because of their religion. They were told they had to believe in the king and his god, whatever it was, or they would be imprisoned.
They led an exodus from Europe to this country, people of the same mind-set. They simply wanted to escape the tyranny of their ordinary lives. This country was founded that way. For the first time in human history, a government and country was founded on the belief that leaders serve the population. This country was the first in history, the EXCEPTION -- e-x-c-e-p-t, except. The exception to the rule is what American exceptionalism is.
It is because of this liberty and freedom that our country exists, because the founders recognized it comes from God. It's part of the natural yearning of the human spirit. It is not granted by a government. It's not granted by Putin. It's not granted by Obama or any other human being. We are created with the natural yearning to be free, and it is other men and leaders throughout human history who have suppressed that and imprisoned people for seeking it.
The US is the first time in the history of the world where a government was organized with a Constitution laying out the rules, that the individual was supreme and dominant, and that is what led to the US becoming the greatest country ever because it unleashed people to be the best they could be. Nothing like it had ever happened. That's American exceptionalism. Putin doesn't know what it is, Obama doesn't know what it is, and it just got trashed in the New York Times. It's just unacceptable.
The vast majority of the people of this world since the beginning of time have never known the kind of liberty and freedom that's taken for granted every day in this country. Most people have lived in abject fear of their leaders. Most people have lived in abject fear of whoever held power over them. Most people in the world have not had plentiful access to food and clean water. It was a major daily undertaking for most people to come up with just those two basic things.
Just surviving was the primary occupation of most people in the world. The history of the world is dictatorship, tyranny, subjugation, whatever you want to call it of populations -- and then along came the United States of America. Pilgrims were the first to come here seeking freedom from all of that. They were oppressed because of their religion. They were told they had to believe in the king and his god, whatever it was, or they would be imprisoned.
They led an exodus from Europe to this country, people of the same mind-set. They simply wanted to escape the tyranny of their ordinary lives. This country was founded that way. For the first time in human history, a government and country was founded on the belief that leaders serve the population. This country was the first in history, the EXCEPTION -- e-x-c-e-p-t, except. The exception to the rule is what American exceptionalism is.
It is because of this liberty and freedom that our country exists, because the founders recognized it comes from God. It's part of the natural yearning of the human spirit. It is not granted by a government. It's not granted by Putin. It's not granted by Obama or any other human being. We are created with the natural yearning to be free, and it is other men and leaders throughout human history who have suppressed that and imprisoned people for seeking it.
The US is the first time in the history of the world where a government was organized with a Constitution laying out the rules, that the individual was supreme and dominant, and that is what led to the US becoming the greatest country ever because it unleashed people to be the best they could be. Nothing like it had ever happened. That's American exceptionalism. Putin doesn't know what it is, Obama doesn't know what it is, and it just got trashed in the New York Times. It's just unacceptable.
How many folks were jailed by the TPS after hours in the rain, just because they happened to be at Queen and Spadina at the wrong moment? And how many were arrested and roughed up in the advertised protest venue at Queen's Park? Not that anyone actually seems to have actually been allowed to get as far as making a protest.
