Church and State

[Avatar4321]

I'm not surprised. Your contribution is most valued.

PS: it's 'were' not 'where'.

Um here said were. not where.

 

[insein]

Hey! You should emigrate to France then. They've done away with all that stuff - in public services at least. They DO have proper sep. of church and state!

You miss the point. France is oppression of church by state. America is freedom of religion from State. No ONE religion however shall be favored over another. If Catholics, Jews, Baptists, Hindu's etc have to show their face on a Driver's license, then so do muslims. If Catholics, Jews, Hindu's etc dont have their religious propaganda projected for miles over a loud speaker, then muslims shouldnt be allowed to have it either.

Freedom to practice but equal under law.

 

[dmp]

Oh come on, let me get to -1000 at least!

...if that is the only requirement....I'll see what I can do.

 

[8236]

What Messianic nonsense are you talking about? The only time the President mentions his faith for the most part is when he asked about it.

And I am rather curious where you get 1945 as a reference when Europe got rid of the religious mentality.

Reference to 1945 was meant to be sarky and more general. That's when we stopped being (generally) idiotic and started looking at the world in a more sensible/compromising/diplomatic way.

 

[Avatar4321]

Reference to 1945 was meant to be sarky and more general. That's when we stopped being (generally) idiotic and started looking at the world in a more sensible/compromising/diplomatic way.

Could have fooled me. Did anyone realize that the Europeans stopped being idiotic and looked at the world in a sensible diplomatic way? its sure news to me. After all last time i checked they still lived in socialistic societies.

 

[8236]

too witty for me!

so spill it out cupcake, Where ya from?

Well, my delicious scone. Were am I from? I suppose I should tell you-maybe you can come up with a stereotype. Holland.

 

[8236]

Could have fooled me. Did anyone realize that the Europeans stopped being idiotic and looked at the world in a sensible diplomatic way? its sure news to me. After all last time i checked they still lived in socialistic societies.

This is 2004, not 1984.

 

[dmp]

Dont try too hard, that's 886 more whiney posts!

I think he meant -1000 rep.

 

[Avatar4321]

This is 2004, not 1984.

i know which is why its incredibly sad that you guys still buy that socialist dogma. Why not lower some taxes and give your people freedom to take care of yourselves instead of getting pampered by the government.

 

[8236]

You miss the point. France is oppression of church by state..

I which case: long may it continue.

America is freedom of religion from State.

Just helps if you are christian and protestant. You take such matters far more seriously than we do over here.
How many catholic presidents? How many Jewish? How women for that matter! The Brits had a Jew Prime minister in the 19th century (and a women in the 20th). I know I'm not sticking to the point, but look at Sonya Ghandi in India. She would (as an Italian) have made PM if she had wanted to.

No ONE religion however shall be favored over another. If Catholics, Jews, Baptists, Hindu's etc have to show their face on a Driver's license, then so do muslims. If Catholics, Jews, Hindu's etc dont have their religious propaganda projected for miles over a loud speaker, then muslims shouldnt be allowed to have it either.

Freedom to practice but equal under law.

I agree completely.

 

[8236]

Holland? and you are worrying about what goes on here, why?

Now that is rather stereotypical of an American. Your nation is so insular. Most of you havn't the faintest idea about what goes on in the rest of the world and you don't care (it is totally understandable for such a large country). However, what goes on in America is very much of great importance to everyone else because of America's huge economic/political/cultural influence on everyone else.
That is where America's (or it's people/voters at least) weakness lies- lack of knowledge of the rest of the world.

 

[8236]

i know which is why its incredibly sad that you guys still buy that socialist dogma. Why not lower some taxes and give your people freedom to take care of yourselves instead of getting pampered by the government.

Stereotype again! And nonsense. It's all about striking a balance. America does it in just the same way as we do in Europe. Give or take 5% your taxes are the same as ours, about 35% of GDP (oh... until your president decided a $400bn defecit would be a good idea - my, my, that's even more than your entire defence budget (which is 50% of the entire world's defence expenditure))

 

[Avatar4321]

Stereotype again! And nonsense. It's all about striking a balance. America does it in just the same way as we do in Europe. Give or take 5% your taxes are the same as ours, about 35% of GDP (oh... until your president decided a $400bn defecit would be a good idea - my, my, that's even more than your entire defence budget (which is 50% of the entire world's defence expenditure))

The US Taxes arent nearly that high. 35% of GDP?!? and you dont see a problem with that?

How is double digit unemployment striking a balance?

 

[8236]

Wrong! we are very aware of these things, and we are very aware of the affects it holds on some countries. however we are also aware of the postion that some countries put us in when it's of their convenience, with that said we do not want to vote in a ass kisser to the foreign policy.

Fair enough, you personally may be aware of foreign things, but in general, the larger a country the more insular and non-internationalist(for want of a better word) a country is. This is very noticeable to me when I go from Holland to say France, or the UK. It is inevitable. Just as it is inconceivable for me not to have a passport, so it is unusual for the average American to have one.

 

[Avatar4321]

Now that is rather stereotypical of an American. Your nation is so insular. Most of you havn't the faintest idea about what goes on in the rest of the world and you don't care (it is totally understandable for such a large country). However, what goes on in America is very much of great importance to everyone else because of America's huge economic/political/cultural influence on everyone else.
That is where America's (or it's people/voters at least) weakness lies- lack of knowledge of the rest of the world.

Actually we have plenty of knowledge. How the heck do you think we became such an economic power house?

Maybe if you guys worried more about whats going on in your backyard then worrying about whats going on in the US, you guys could become an economic/political/cultural powerhouse too. Maybe then we wouldnt have to clean up your garbage.

 

[8236]

The US Taxes arent nearly that high. 35% of GDP?!? and you dont see a problem with that?

How is double digit unemployment striking a balance?

I think if you add up ALL the taxes you pay incl. import duties, tariffs, value added taxes, local taxes, state taxes or whatever they are called, in addition to income tax, then I would be very surprised if you paid, on average less than a third of your GDP back to the state.

Double digit unemployment? Who believes government unemployment statistics! They are always fiddled (and usually much higher than the official one) whichever country you are in.

 

[dmp]

I think if you add up ALL the taxes you pay incl. import duties, tariffs, value added taxes, local taxes, state taxes or whatever they are called, in addition to income tax, then I would be very surprised if you paid, on average less than a third of your GDP back to the state.

Double digit unemployment? Who believes government unemployment statistics! They are always fiddled (and usually much higher than the official one) whichever country you are in.

I paid about 17% last year. and 8% on most of my purchases.

 

[8236]

Actually we have plenty of knowledge. How the heck do you think we became such an economic power house?

Maybe if you guys worried more about whats going on in your backyard then worrying about whats going on in the US, you guys could become an economic/political/cultural powerhouse too. Maybe then we wouldnt have to clean up your garbage.

Our garbage?????? Is this a WWII reference?
Literal garbage? America is the king god emperor of that kind of garbage.
Hello! You think terrorism is something to worry about! We- and you in particular are racing headlong into the environmental abyss. Won't be long now. The oil's running out. Even in Iraq.

 

[8236]

I paid about 17% last year. and 8% on most of my purchases.

OK fair enough so you pay around 25%. Someone is financing that 6trillion dollar public sector debt though- I guess that's something for the kids to worry about though.

 

[Avatar4321]

I paid about 17% last year. and 8% on most of my purchases.

actually he is talking about the percent of GDP that is taxes. not necessarily how much each are individually paying. If i remember that stat, someone posted it here a few months ago, the US has less than 5% of its GDP as taxes. I remember that because we were comparing it to the Germans who have about 35%