Dreary Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Do I hear bells of WW III. You do. Good thing our military has been “practicing.”
dont mess with the US (or Texas) rumors of our demise are very premature
Just picked up a little CRN this morning. I’ve been watching them for a while, they are private prison operators. I figure that should be a pretty stable industry. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=CRN what do you guys think of them?
long prisons given secular demand for beds and inadequante supply. CXW has been on my long list for 3 years. down on it 5 sticks since 25 was my fair value
Fun prison fact #34: Did you know that since smoking is banned at most prisons many prisoners have switch to using Mackrel as currency.
> I was not referring to the “quality” of the > ticket, I am not American and I don’t get to vote > anyway, so I don’t really care who wins. I am > talking about the endless possibilities for people > living in this country. A guy like that had not > chance of making it out of poverty anywhere else > in the world, here he was able to go to Harvard > and is very close to even becoming president. > > And it’s not just about minorities, Russians have > no chance of getting anywhere in Russia unless > they’re connected to the “right” people. Chinese > will get nowhere in their country either unless > they’re associated with the communists, and the > list goes on and on. > > In my opinion, as long as America remains the > destination of smartest, brightest , most educated > and hardest working people on earth, it will > always rise back. I agree that in many countries in the world a person from the background you mentioned above would not have had the opportunity to rise to where Obama now is. But Russia and China however are not considered great places overall. I know that in Ireland Obama’s ascent would have been possible, I cannot speak for other countries but I don’t think it’s very balanced to view every other country outside of the US as having a system akin to China or Russia. Back on track though, yes, I concede that is a very good point for the US. As regards to America being the destination of the “smartest, brightest , most educated and hardest working people on earth”? Hmmm, I dunno, perhaps if you change that to the destination of the smartest, brightest , most educated and hardest working people on earth that are primarily motivated by greed then I’d agree more with you. A lot of intelligent people don’t want to work the crazy hours the Americans do just for more cash, some strange people actually believe there’s more to life than having more possessions than your neighbour. Crazy eh? To be blunt, I didn’t mean to imply America is the worst country in the world, not by a long shot. I’m just saying the majority of the intelligent people outside (and many within) the US consider you to be a nation of unrefined dumb wannabe cowboys that happen to be in a position of power that you can bully the rest of the world. I think it’s fair (but unPC) to say that all generalisations are somewhat rooted in reality, did you ever wonder where the phrase ‘dumb american’ came from? Don’t get me wrong, there are some awful pricks in power in other countries that deserve to rot in jail (Hussein etc.) but don’t think that by having the power to come in guns blazing that the rest of the world considers you as any more than a necessary evil. For an interesting documentary on Americas interventions into the affairs of other countries that were not a threat to it check out “The War on Democracy”. It may give you an idea of how you are viewed.
this thread started promisingly, but has to be flushed down the potty now
BugEyedEarl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Don’t get me wrong, there are some awful pricks in > power in other countries that deserve to rot in > jail (Hussein etc.) but don’t think that by having > the power to come in guns blazing that the rest of > the world considers you as any more than a > necessary evil. > > For an interesting documentary on Americas > interventions into the affairs of other countries > that were not a threat to it check out “The War on > Democracy”. It may give you an idea of how you are > viewed. My comment was regarding the economic future of the US and my logic was that as long as the US (US Universities, research facilities, Silicon Valley, … ) remain open and attractive to foreigners, it is hard to imagine that their economy will not reboud. They will always be first to discover new technologies and turn them into profitable enterprises (Think PC, Internet, … ).
The Romans thought they would be the centre of the universe forever too