Hang on.. yes I bloody can. Iraq NEVER EVER had a suicide bombing IN ITS HISTORY before we invaded. Do you actually know ANYTHING on this topic? FFS!
Hang on.. yes I bloody can. Iraq NEVER EVER had a suicide bombing IN ITS HISTORY before we invaded. Do you actually know ANYTHING on this topic? FFS!
You simply wish to ignore the deaths of 150,000 Iraqi cvilians, how can they possibly be less significant than the deaths of less than 3000 US civilians (most of whom were killed in a single attack). Yes 9/11 was a horrible act of terrorism, but by going around the world killing everything in their path the US have given the terrorists exactly what they wanted, a sense of fear in the heart of a load of stupid Americans who have now assumed that all Arabs/black people are terrorists. They've managed to rip apart Western society due to people like you getting a completely disallusioned view of the whole thing through the media and allowing the government to effectively remove rights and make up new rules as and when it fancies with no resistance.
Pre 9/11 you had never experienced a terrorist attack and it was a shock to you. It is hardly surprising really given the level of security at your airports, it was a complete joke, when returning from Florida in August 2001 the hand luggage scanner was broken, so they checked our bags very briefly manually, the plane was delayed and we were allowed to freely walk back and forth through customs (they only wanted to check we had a boarding pass each time, not passports) and they didn't bother re-checking our hand luggage. In contrast security at Heathrow was pretty much the same as it is today. In the UK we have been used to terrorism for years and haven't let it have such a large effect on us, whilst events such as Bloody Sunday were absolutely appalling we never started invading countries disconnected from the troubles to make us feel better as a nation, we just got on with life and the vast majority of us die from old age, cancer, smoking, drinking, driving, falling down the stairs and trouser malfunctions.
This might make some interesting reading, can you really justify the 'war on terror'?
Or do you seriously think more than 200,000 people would have been killed by acts of terrorism in the last 7 years?
Have you not seen any of the McCain rallies with supporters openly going round calling Obama every possible racist term, not to mention the monkey dolls, and McCain himself frequently having to defend Obama in his later rallies to keep some credibility to the Republican campaign. Did you also not see the Republican crowd booing in McCain's (actually very good) condolence speech as soon as he mentioned the significance of Obama's election. Keeping bringing up blatantly racist propaganda and we are going to point it out.
Don't you see that the situation you're in now is totally backwards, you talk about being capitalist, yet you accept the punishment and burden of massive debt just for trying to improve yourself and earn more money. You don't need to pay that much for your education, in our country people complain that university is not free. Why is the idea of free education and health care something some people see as scary, or somehow not capitalist? You are just making sure everyone gets a chance to be the best they can be. Just look at W, he would never have made it to the presidency had he been born into your situation, he is the perfect example of capitalism failing. W failed at every job he ever had, lost companies money, but still became president.
I often get the impression that people like you seem to think rich people are rich because of their own actions, and nobody else played a part. But without poor people there would be no rich people, there would be nobody to buy your products or use your services. If you take a small percentage of what you earn, and put it back into making sure less fortunate people are happy and healthy, then you will have more customers to sell to, and in the long run you will make more money. Put it this way, if you got all the poor people in the USA to write "poor" on their money before they buy things, I bet you when you count all your money when you're an old rich man on his death bed in his manshion, you won't find a single note without the word poor written on it.
Another thing, just because you don't make a lot of money it does not make you a failure, or less of a success than a rich person. Some of the happiest people in the world are also the poorest, being poor can be a lifestyle choice, there are many people that choose to be homeless, and yet they are treated like scum, like failures. Should you punish those people because of their lifestyle choice?
I don't want to get into a debate why Iraq was good or bad. I simply don't know much on that topic. But I love how everything strays through missquotes.
I'm not republican. I'm independant. Don't generalize me with the rest of the hate mongrels.
you make a lot of sense and I understand where you are coming from. I just don't see how me working very hard to become where I want to be is a bad thing either.
Hell yeah, I'm stressed out that I'm 200k in student debt. You don't know the feeling. I just see the outcome of it all, and hopefully it all pays off.
Just for the record. I'm not trying to alienate people or make enemies.
We are all intitled to our own opinions.
We are all intitled to our own opinions.
Nobody said it was. If you've got a dream to collect lots of green slips of paper with pictures of George Washington on them, good for you! All you need to do is collect 200,000 of them and you'll have as many as a homeless person.
Personally I'm happy making enough money to live a modest lifestyle. I don't want a Ferrari and I wouldn't take one if you offered me one.
Out of interest: How old are you, how many years have you been in college, and what is it you're currently studying towards?
Not loaded questions - I'm just curious about where all that money went.
Good point LOL
28... born in Poland, came to America when I was 8. Left when we were still under Russian communism in 1998.
I've been in school since I was 5 so 23 years :vomit:
Studying chemistry, currently have a masters. Should have a PhD within 2 years. I want to be a college professor to start out. Currently I work for an environmental agency as an analytical chemist.
ATC's post has replied better than i could.
And i'd ask the same question as Kev. How can you get into so much debt without taking on a mortgage, yet still be working full time ?
edit, too late
Working hard to become what you want is a very admirable thing, and it should be rewarded. If you took a look at the statistics, and saw how much money was spent per day on the Iraq war, you might be a bit more angry about being in $200,000 of debt when all you are doing is following the American Dream.
My sister got a masters degree in Molecular Biology and had £22,000 of student loans to pay off, she has paid that off within 2 years and is now looking to go to medical school. She is able to fund all of that earning just £12,000 a year at the moment, working as a nurse. At the current exchange rate, that debt she encurred by going to university is roughly $35,000, so you can see why I think $200,000 is a bit extreme even for a Doctorate. Also she didn't have to pay off that student loan until she earnt more than £20,000 a year (I think, it may be higher) but she decided to pay it off early.
In this country I am able to study at university with a state supported (interest free) loan, it covers my fees and gives a payout which covers a substantial amount of my accommodation and living costs. By working in my spare time I can reasonably comfortably live with no overdrafts or need for outside support, whilst still being able to enjoy myself. I also have security in knowing I will only start repaying my loan once I am earning over a certain threshold, should anything happen that means I can't work or get a reasonable job I won't have an extra bundle of debt to deal with. I also don't have to pay large health insurance fees, and would far rather to have to pay a bit more later to ensure that others don't miss out on health care because they can't afford it. Benefits have there advantages and disadvantages, sure they do get abused and are too attractive in some cases but prevent a lot of people living in poverty by no fault of their own.
Iraq was an independent and relatively stable dictatorship before we invaded. Whilst there was a dark history (largely US backed) it was hardly in the state of anarchy that it is in today. There was no war, the Iraqis put up nominal resistance and surrendered there American weaponry without a fight. Unfortunately the American plan for democracy in Iraq assumed that they wanted democracy and wanted the Americans to deliver it to them, whilst some may not have liked Saddam they still got on with lives under him (much like plenty of people dislike their leaders in both democracies and dictatorships around the world). With only a tiny amount of resistance our peace plan (as if there ever was such a thing) was brought rapidly to a halt.
I think I can see where your opposition to government spending on social initiatives might've come from.
So you've currently completely... 6 years of college that you had to pay for? (3 for your BSc, 2 for your MSc, one year of your doctorate?).
Well your commitment is admirable, I'll give you that, but it's a hell of a lot of money to owe and not own a house at the end of it.
yup
4 years BS. 2 years MS... 1.5 more years for PhD. Not always full time student cause I had to work, so it's taking longer than expected.
It completely sucks imho. But I committed myself a long time ago so I gotta go through with it.
It's not hard to incur 200k in student loans. I've been paying them off slowly but G25s ain't going down in price
There's a bit of a difference between having a welfare state and having a corrupt communist dictator running the show, though. You do appreciate that, right?
Living here in the UK I pay a good deal more tax than you do. Probably about half of my money goes in tax; 20%-ish on most of my income, plus 7% "national insurance" (basically a secondary income tax), 17.5% sales tax on everything I buy except food, and a hell of a lot more on stuff like alcohol and tobacco, approx. £1200 a year council tax on the property I live in, etc.
But at the same time if I get sick, I get looked after. If anyone in my family gets sick, they get looked after. If I want to go to college, I get an interest-free loan to pay for it and no obligation to pay it back until I'm earning enough to afford to pay it back. If I find myself unemployed the state will keep me alive while I try to find my way back into work, and so on. And there's a state pension fund too, but that will probably be bankrupt by the time I'm old enough to retire.
I'm sure I'm not getting good value out of my government, and I thankfully haven't had to make much use of the free healthcare or welfare provisions, but I'm sure as hell glad they're there.
You mean 1988 right?
Anyway Obama isn´t left wing at all compared for example to the goverment Sweden. They´re a bunch of commies over there.
On Obama and Trinity
http://www.suntimes.com/news/p ... 81141,obama053108.article
The way I interpret it is that Obama joined Trinity because
- it was large
- had adopted black value system (http://web.archive.org/web/200 ... p:/www.tucc.org/about.htm)
- had its history intertwined with the American civil rights movement and MLK., Jr.
The size of the community must have been appealing because even before joining Trinity he'd been a community organizer. In fact, a documentary I watched stated lack of potential as one of the main reasons he wanted to move on to bigger, more meaningful tasks of similar nature.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070416/moberg
I can only speculate why he left it so late to disassociate himself, but personally I believe it wasn't because he was intimate with controversial preachings of Rev. Wright.
On Obama's Muslim History
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5286
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com ... ve/2007/12/22/531492.aspx
Omg so his family is one quarter Muslim, run for teh hillz!!11 Tbh, the way I see it is that unless you're force fed a strict regime of a religion, you're not of a denomination until you say so yourself.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/p ... 81141,obama053108.article
The way I interpret it is that Obama joined Trinity because
- it was large
- had adopted black value system (http://web.archive.org/web/200 ... p:/www.tucc.org/about.htm)
- had its history intertwined with the American civil rights movement and MLK., Jr.
The size of the community must have been appealing because even before joining Trinity he'd been a community organizer. In fact, a documentary I watched stated lack of potential as one of the main reasons he wanted to move on to bigger, more meaningful tasks of similar nature.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070416/moberg
I can only speculate why he left it so late to disassociate himself, but personally I believe it wasn't because he was intimate with controversial preachings of Rev. Wright.
On Obama's Muslim History
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5286
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com ... ve/2007/12/22/531492.aspx
Omg so his family is one quarter Muslim, run for teh hillz!!11 Tbh, the way I see it is that unless you're force fed a strict regime of a religion, you're not of a denomination until you say so yourself.
I'm really curious as to how you run up $200k in student debts, getting a PhD in a field like Chemistry, which has a shitton of cash being thrown at it by various interests.
I was an English major in undergrad (at a state school) and racked up a whopping $2.5k, then got paid to get my PhD in English (didn't get it :P) at a pretty decent private school in Chicago. I know for a fact that funding is much easier to come by in the sciences than it is in liberal arts.
Are you going to Harvard or something?
edit: Or UofC, given your location?
I was an English major in undergrad (at a state school) and racked up a whopping $2.5k, then got paid to get my PhD in English (didn't get it :P) at a pretty decent private school in Chicago. I know for a fact that funding is much easier to come by in the sciences than it is in liberal arts.
Are you going to Harvard or something?
edit: Or UofC, given your location?
I was going to argue here, but didn't read the end of the sentence. So I'm agreeing.
What I was going to argue is that you can't be 'one quarter muslim'. You decide that you are or you aren't, and the only one who has that decision is you. If he says he's not then he's not. He's half Kenyan, but that's about it and is neither here nor there with regards to whether he can or should run the US.I guess what I'm getting at is that if you're not getting paid to get a PhD, you're not doing it right.
Or you're too dumb to warrant funding.
Not making any judgments here.
Or you're too dumb to warrant funding.
Not making any judgments here.
Anyhoo, back to the original topic.
The best did not winned!
The best did not winned!
At the end of the day, I don't see the problem with possibility of him being Muslim, even though I know he's not. We have Muslim politicians in the UK, I don't really see what the fuss is about. Muslim/Christian/Buddhist, I always have political leaders who don't share my religious views, doesn't make much of a difference. When people say "OMG he's a Muslim!!111", I think, well Gordon Brown is a protestant, I don't agree with that either, but it doesn't affect the way I vote.
WHAT?!?"?£?!(!!?
This is all Labour's fault for letting in 5 million Polish immigrants a year, giving them all free mobile phones and luxury flats and then they turn out to be either rapists or Muslim politicians. The Mail was right all along.
I agree. The problem is that most of the christians in this country look at anyone who believe's diffrently than they do as some sort of hethen. It seems to be very hard for christians here to accept the fact that all non-christians arent out for the good of evil.
This thread reminds me of a certain clip every time..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFlNyqeeifA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFlNyqeeifA
Really I don't care about Obama's religion... But alot for people care about it (and it's probably the reason why he says he's a christian)
It's pure marketing...
I just can't see an atheist leader in America...
Anyway I think (and I hope) that in this point Obama is better than Bush and Mccain
I just don't like when leaders mix religion and politic...
It's pure marketing...
I just can't see an atheist leader in America...
Anyway I think (and I hope) that in this point Obama is better than Bush and Mccain
I just don't like when leaders mix religion and politic...
Official US Presidential Election Day Thread
(527 posts, started )
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