Hi, I live in Europe, in the Netherlands. Thought maybe some of you
would be interested in a bystanders view on the us noise that is made
here...

I thought I'd get info about boats when I joined this group a few
weeks ago.
But I got an education that was far more interesting. In the beginning
that is, it was interesting to learn to understand the way of
reasoning of rep'and lib's and the way the one would drive a bus
through the others arguments.
In the developed world I've never seen a country that devided like the
us. Looks to me like the civil war was never ended but went on using
other means.

But I am glad this discussion is going on. And I am glad that a start
is made in acknowleding that a lifestyle of godfearing
self-sufficiency can easily become a caricature.

It's very interesting to see the similarity between the rep's yelling
"you're takin' down american values" and the muslim condemning one as
infidel.

I hope but don't expect that the US will stop its misplaced acting as
a superior body. The power inside to make this happen is totally
absent. And when I look at it in a reasonably pessimistic/realistic
way, the americans who would be competent enough to rise above the
fighting parties and could alter the situation would rather be found
dead then become part of this ridiculously derailed tv-show thats is
mistakingly seen as a political system.

And....
You don't have to point out the mistakes Europe makes.
We don't know how to fight like the us does, we have a clown for
president in Italy, a bookkeeper in Holland, a ventrilloquists doll in
Britain... We have difficulty becoming a union. We know that -in order
to maintain a certain level of civilisation- we have a system in which
we help the lesser priviliged and off course there will be some abuse
of that system
but we see that's simply a part of the costs of civilisation.
We accept being just one of the parties in the world and we're not a
purely selfish, manipulating superpower.

But what do we see when we look over the pond?
A country that rapidly alters from a dependable big brother with whom
one could achieve rational solutions into an irrational schizophrene
brother that more and more becomes a helpless
part of the problem and in time may need to be isolated in a
straightjacket.

And this is just for starters. I haven't even mentioned the
environment, the penalty court, the shortsightedness when it comes to
achieving peace, the selfishness mistakingly referred to
as selfsufficiency.

I wouldn't dare to fly an american flag when cruising abroad and not
because it poses a threat.

Thanks for reading my rambling...

Len