[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Liberator


Don't bet on it.

You could become the Coalition, which would make the USA the Alliance.

Alliance with who?

[Tiara]

Originally posted by aldo_14


Alliance with who?

CANADA!

:p

[Count Brie]

Originally posted by Liberator


Don't bet on it.

You could become the Coalition, which would make the USA the Alliance.

we'd be the global defence initiative. you'r the bruthahood uf nod.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Deepblue
Freedom is quality of life.

Up to a certain point. Too much freedom is chaos.
If you had complete freedom, you'd have a few who'd have your so called quality of life, and the others would be crushed by them, and that would turn to totalitarism. Ain't that a funny paradox?
Freedom is so over-rated if you ask me

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by Nico


Up to a certain point. Too much freedom is chaos.
If you had complete freedom, you'd have a few who'd have your so called quality of life, and the others would be crushed by them, and that would turn to totalitarism. Ain't that a funny paradox?
Freedom is so over-rated if you ask me

Complete Freedom = Anarchy... Anarchy + Time = Tyranny, why?.. because somebody will nearly always climb to the top of the heap through whatever means necessary..

what sorta freedom one should shoot for is Relative Freedom.. meaning the same general "freedom" most people enjoy today, Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, etc, etc.

as for my opinions of the EU?.. well, i won't pretend i know much about it, save for the fact that it's a coalition of European Countries who are banding together, rather than being forced together by a single party, like the Soviet Socialist Republics way back when..

it's also giving small european countries a bit more financial clout to help deal with the Big Economic Player on the earth, which would be the US and its allies.. which is ironic, mind you, since america, doesn't seem to be all that well off as it likes people to think, for example, a friend of mine over IRC was complaining 'cuz she couldn't afford the $250 Doctor's bill for just an abcess (which popped, by the way), and the visitation..

and here i am, able to go to the doctor's for fifty bucks, and get most of that back via a medicare rebate.. i won't even touch the prescription drugs issue.. i'm sure many an australian know how cheaply compared to the US one can get prescription medication here if they're unemployed.

i'm not blaming the US for anything, tho, if anything, there's people who have a far worse situation in other countries across the world, russia, for example, a former superpower, now trying to recover from nearly breaking itself during the cold war and afterwards.

i won't even mention third world countries, they go without saying.

what i'm getting at here, is that America isn't as Gilded as its politicians like us to see it.

but, the European Union might be a Blessing and a Curse, we'll just have to wait and see.. i don't see how it'd become the next communist state, however..

[aldo_14]

No country, really, has a right to have a 'holier than thou' attitude.

[Nico]

Oh, yeah, forgot to give my opinion on that EU thing... Well, to be honest, I don't know much about it From what I know, it's an interesting thing that enforces on others many laws that we already have anyway, that enforces economic goals that hardly any of its members can achieve, that helps the poorest members ( take Spain, I like that quote from their... prime minister? who told his people "remember, 2/3 of the highways you're driving on have been paid by the EU" before the vote for the EU constitution, which led to an interesting result btw: the thing was accepted by a crushing majority, while the crushing majority of Spanish - Spaniards? darn, I never know - didn't even vote, you see where I'm getting to? )
Well, for most, I believe it's a useful thing that, in the long term, will give more economical power to the European countries, but has little impact on people's daily life; and, mostly, i'm sure it'll never turn into a federal entity. The European melting pot of cultures is so complicated it just can't happen, even if everybody wanted to, which is as unlikely as USA wanting to go back to the British Kingdom as a set of colonies.

And as for Turkey, well, I'd say that 1) they're not really part of Europe and 2) their people's rights are far from the UE standards so they're not a right candidate. But in all honesty, from my humble point of view dare I say, I just don't care if they're gonna be in or out because 1) it's planed to be voted in, what, 8 years? 2) weither they're in or out, it won't change a damn thing for us, and probably not much for most of  them either, because as it stands, it's just a thing to legislate high laws and economics, not "commoner"'s ones.

[Clave]

Originally posted by kietotheworld
I'd like to think that without the support of Great Britain (including the people) that Europe can't progress very far.  And with papers like The Sun still going I don't think there will be support for a USE or anything like that.

Point of order: The Sun is not a newspaper, it's a comic

But there will be big changes in the next 10 years, as the union expands further eastwards to include Iran and Iraq....

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by Nico
Oh, yeah, forgot to give my opinion on that EU thing... Well, to be honest, I don't know much about it From what I know, it's an interesting thing that enforces on others many laws that we already have anyway, that enforces economic goals that hardly any of its members can achieve, that helps the poorest members ( take Spain, I like that quote from their... prime minister? who told his people "remember, 2/3 of the highways you're driving on have been paid by the EU" before the vote for the EU constitution, which led to an interesting result btw: the thing was accepted by a crushing majority, while the crushing majority of Spanish - Spaniards? darn, I never know - didn't even vote, you see where I'm getting to? )
Well, for most, I believe it's a useful thing that, in the long term, will give more economical power to the European countries, but has little impact on people's daily life; and, mostly, i'm sure it'll never turn into a federal entity. The European melting pot of cultures is so complicated it just can't happen, even if everybody wanted to, which is as unlikely as USA wanting to go back to the British Kingdom as a set of colonies.

And as for Turkey, well, I'd say that 1) they're not really part of Europe and 2) their people's rights are far from the UE standards so they're not a right candidate. But in all honesty, from my humble point of view dare I say, I just don't care if they're gonna be in or out because 1) it's planed to be voted in, what, 8 years? 2) weither they're in or out, it won't change a damn thing for us,

in other words, all the EU essentually boils down to, is a Bunch of Economic Standards. that are set by the larger economic players in Europe, at the behest (or chargrin?) of the smaller, poorer members?

Sounds plausable from my sometimes Cynical Standpoint.

i also wonder, if it's basically an effort to keep large US-Based Corporations (hey, it's happened heaps here) from buying-out, or taking over, businesses, mining, and other high-value moneyspinners in europe..

like i said before.. economic clout. the larger players in europe band together, the smaller, and poorer ones alike join with the larger parts to maybe catch the windfalls of working with the big players, in order to keep their businesses local..

it's almost globalisation in miniture, innit?

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Clave


Point of order: The Sun is not a newspaper, it's a comic

But there will be big changes in the next 10 years, as the union expands further eastwards to include Iran and Iraq....

I demand you retract that statement!
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.
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.
.
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It's insulting to comics.

Like the Daily Mail and Daily Express(amongst others), the Sun is roughly on the level of toilet paper.  Used toilet paper.  Toilet paper, in fact, that has been used by an obese building merchant with chronic explosive diarrhea and a penchant for week-old chicken vindaloo.

[mitac]

Well, the coalition won.

I found plenty of examples for socialist states. The GDR, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary...oh, wait, that map I was looking at is 15 years old.

[Janos]

Originally posted by mitac
Well, the coalition won.

I found plenty of examples for socialist states. The GDR, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary...oh, wait, that map I was looking at is 15 years old.

Well, if we get into this, then we should maybe define what "socialist" means - is it a complete communistic utopia (none exist) or do Scandinavian-style socialdemocratic countries count? Does Soviet Union?

[Lynx]

The problem of the EU is that no one knows what it acutally does. Most of the things you hear are myths or ony half the truth. Just think about the EU charta that's being worked on right now. I bet half of the EUpeople don't even know about that, among other things.
I don't know who's responsible for the info coverage on the EU, the EU institutions themselves or the member countries gouvernments(probably both), but there happenings there need to be brought to the public on a broader scale.
Over here, about the only time you hear about the Union is during elections when some obscure parties claim the EU is the source of all evil while others state that it'S th peak of economic evolution with both sides saying squat about it actually.