Quoting skipnet50:

Quote:
I don't consider it any way offensive to state that the UK has been led down the path towards Socialism. From the viewpoint of many of us here in the states that is a mere observation of fact. I suppose there were people in the Old Soviet Union who would have taken offense at being called a Communistic society and would have taken great pains to tell all of us just how free they were, but i don't believe any of us would have been convinced. I see the US sliding off in the direction of muich of Europe, if we aren't careful, but this patriot will do whatever he can to make sure that America remains the Land of the Free, where we can actually voice our opinion and debate viewpoints without of someone trying to shut them up. We also have no right in this country to NOT be offended, that is part of life, you can be offended by things all day long if that is what you want to spend your life doing, it won't get you anywhere, but you can certainly do so.

Skip

I'm not trying to shut anyone up, quite the contrary - the more comments along these lines you make, the better we all get to see who you really are. You also might want to consider that I'm not from any of the countries that were initially addressed, which just MIGHT tell you something. Now I could make all sorts of comments about this alleged "Land of the Free", but I just won't lower myself to do so. If your freedom of debate serves as a replacement for common decency, I really feel sorry for you.

P.S.
If being a patriot (or calling yourself one) is an excuse for putting fellow user's countries down, I feel even more sorry for you.

BTW: you analogy is flawed. Whether a country is communist or not is a statement of FACT, calling a country "mediocre" is an appreciation.

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Posted: October 15, 2008 12:00 PM
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Wow! I thought this kind of cute, thanks for the red arrow.

This post earned me two red arrows & one green. This is not the kind of content the creators had in mind 'IMHO' for giving red arrows. The content of this post is less offensive than the Tina Fey, routine seen on prime time TV. IMHO the arrow system is a crude an ineffective control device. It allows  (does not control) some individuals, to make brazen insults & defend the insults for several posts; then punishes posts that are not offensive, but the viewer disagrees with. Recipients of red arrows often times post there shock, at having been given the red arrow, which prompts others to give green arrows to act as a balance. This shows 'IMHO' ineffectiveness of the arrow system. The creators have stated that a couple 'red arrows' here or there are no big deal, or words to that effect (similar in manner). I would tend to disagree, as creativeness is 'stifled' in the process. I would encourage everyone, to review the criteria for giving arrows, especially red ones, better yet perhaps the creators could code, pop up message, when pressing the red arrow button, with verbiage akin to 'does this post meet the requirements for giving.'

Take Care
Rico

Quoting skipnet50:

Quote:

...
I see the US sliding off in the direction of muich of Europe, if we aren't careful, but this patriot will do whatever he can to make sure that America remains the Land of the Free, where we can actually voice our opinion and debate viewpoints without of someone trying to shut them up.
...

While I certainly agree some European countries are worse of than the US, some are also better off. When it for example comes to freedom of the press, only the new EU members Poland and Bulgaria is below the US on this list: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025 - of course lists are subjective, feel free to reference any other list but I doubt you will find any where all of the European countries are signifently below the US.

Quote:

We also have no right in this country to NOT be offended, that is part of life, you can be offended by things all day long if that is what you want to spend your life doing, it won't get you anywhere, but you can certainly do so.

This goes for every free country. I hope you do not have the delusion this is something only the US have?

Hi Northbloke

Nice comments & Thanks!

score now 3 red, 1 green for Plain in the oval office.

You would think if the arrow system was truly effective, that someone would be at the bottom of the list, banned or severely limited in posting, I'll bet that has not happened.

Take Care
Rico

Quoting sugarjoe:

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Quoting Rifter:

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If Obama wins this election, you will see America lurch toward the left and become far more socialist than ever before, and we will end up following Canada and Britain into mediocrity.

The counties that I think come the closest to the idea of socialism are Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Numerous surveys have shown that these countires have a very high living standard and are being considered the best places in the world to live.

BTW I do not see any reason why you, Rifter, seconded by Skip, found it neccessary to insult 2 entire countries with your post.

From an historical standpoint, what I said is 100% accurate.  Taking into account such things as forms of government, military power, guaranteed individual rights, government control of nearly every aspect of life, etc., both are clearly more socialist in nature than the US is currently.

I also wouldn't call the scandinavian countries so great either.  Giving more than half your wages to the government every payday to pay for socialized medicine, etc., is not my idea of freedom.  It is a VERY short step from that scenario to something like Soviet Russia.  None of those countries have any guarantee in their law against government tyranny raising its ugly head.  You may not agree, but our 2nd Amendment is the one thing that has stopped many of the excesses of government from ever getting a foothold in this country.

Quoting dee1959jay:

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All I can say is: if I were to state the US is a mediocre society, country, whatever (which I won't - I consider myself too civilised, mature etc. to even consider it), you would be all over the place complaining about how inflammatory my post would be. Political correctness has nothing to do with it, common decency has. Not thát common, apparently.

Well, with me at least you would be wrong.  The US has been sliding to the left since Reagan left office, and I don't like it one bit.  If Obama is elected, then there WILL be a huge lurch further left.  You mark my words:  If he wins the election, there is a VERY REAL POSSIBILITY that he will trigger a world-wide depression with his policiies.  If that happens, your worries about me calling Britain mediocre don't mean much, do they?

By the way, I happen to like England.  My ancestors, in part, come from there.  England was the big dog in the junkyard for hundreds of years, and I am sad that they are today a shadow of their former glory.

Quoting northbloke:

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Quoting northbloke:

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Well in that case, it looks like I'll be getting one soon too, cos I've just redressed the balance! 

Guess what? I got one!     

@Rico,
I think you're right. The reputation system as it stands is ineffective. Maybe the standards for negative arrows is set too high, as some users seem to be able to still post freely even after posting some extremely offensive comments.
And on the other hand, there are others who simply use red arrows as a sign of disagreement.
I think what would help is a more formal list of posting violations on the red arrow page, with a checkbox so you can signify which one you're saying the post violates.

Not to say I told you so, but some of us said this is just what would happen when this arrow thingy was introduced.  To date, I have only handed out maybe half a dozen that I can recall, and they've been pretty evenly split.  If you can't carry on a discussion about serious issues without someone having a hissy fit, then one or both of the parties involved shouldn't be participating at all.

Quoting Rifter:

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Well, with me at least you would be wrong.  The US has been sliding to the left since Reagan left office, and I don't like it one bit.  If Obama is elected, then there WILL be a huge lurch further left.  You mark my words:  If he wins the election, there is a VERY REAL POSSIBILITY that he will trigger a world-wide depression with his policiies.  If that happens, your worries about me calling Britain mediocre don't mean much, do they?

By the way, I happen to like England.  My ancestors, in part, come from there.  England was the big dog in the junkyard for hundreds of years, and I am sad that they are today a shadow of their former glory.

Well, with me at least you would be wrong.  The US has been sliding to the right since Clinton left office, and I don't like it one bit.  If McCain is elected nothing will change.  You mark my words:  If he wins the election, there is a VERY REAL POSSIBILITY that he will not prevent a world-wide depression with his policies.  If that happens, my worries about you calling Britain mediocre don't mean much, do they?

By the way, I happen to like the United States. The United Statis has been the big dog in the junkyard for hundred years, and I am sad if they will be a shadow of their former glory.