The greatest country in the world!!! ... against which I need to defend myself. (Page 3)

That is exactly what you are saying and has everything to do with opening a grocery store in a food desert.

If I was advocating that the government open the store, manage it, order from distributors that they own, ship it on trucks they on, grow it on farms they on, blah blah blah then you may have a point.  Training local residents to run a grocery business and providing a grant or low interest loan to build one is a pretty far cry from governmental control of farm to shelf.

Putting your fears and words into the other sides mouth is why nothing can get done anymore. 

It is not a fear, I am just pointing out the economic reality that your premise to your argument that the free market can't solve inner city decay and poverty and therefore needs centrally planned intervention is wrong. 

That is all....

Rather like the contradiction where they say, we need ban and have more firearms regulations to save just one child's life and then support the killing of 3000+ unborn children a day through abortion.

Is our country so fragile that a few numbnutz can screw it up?

I think this is where your title and your mentality is going astray from where we gun-toting conservatives are.

The Country is not made up of the Government.  The Country is "We the People."

The concept of our country is that The People should have the Power and not The Government. 

So when we say "We're the Greatest Country in the World" (and I've seen a lot of the world so I do agree with that statement) you can also say "I need to have the right to keep and bear arms to protect myself from the Government of this Country."

It may not clear it up for you, but it's as clear as can be to me.

We still have the power to overthrow the current system in an election.  We have the chance every 2 years.

This I think is where the majority of the country is wrong. We no longer have the power. Those in charge allow us to think that though. 

We no longer have the power to do what?  What is it that you feel like you used to be able to do but no longer can?

I think one of the things that makes the USA a great country is that you have the ability to take part in this sort of discussion where the overall goal is to make it even better.  You're not sitting back and thinking you've got it made - you tend to take an intelligent, passionate and reasoned view of situations and challenge them hard.  That's healthy.

I like to think England is the greatest country on earth, I won't bore you with why, but if I was forced to live somewhere else, I'd go for the US.  There are lots of faults, we're all humans after all but your hearts are generally in the right place.

I lived in England most of my life - I moved to Greece for about 5 years - great fun for partying playing hard....but life is tough there and now even tougher.  Back to England but the weather actually got me down having tried a warmer sunnier climate.

Fast forward now in Australia - this is great - this is home.  I went back to England over Christmas - couldn't way to get back to Australia, it's the space, the lifestyle - it sure has it's faults, the main one being its so far away from everything!  But I can't imagine living anywhere else.  Ever.

Unlike the OP, I don't see this as (misdefined) jingoism, I just see this as completely natural. 

I firmly believe that no Republican or Democrat who can get elected into congress will ever be able to do so without being beholden to the special interests groups that really run our country. We pretend like we can elect someone who will make a difference, but by the time they get to congress, they owe millions if not billions in favors to their donors. They don't care about us or anything that we care about. They care about continuing to pay back the people that gave them the money they needed to get into congress.

Of course your circumstances at the time may dictate how your feel about a place - maybe having my daughter here makes this home.  

jobaxas - 2013-02-07 9:41 PM

Goosedog - 2013-02-08 1:42 PM

jobaxas - 2013-02-07 9:14 PM

Fast forward now in Australia - this is great - this is home.  I went back to England over Christmas - couldn't way to get back to Australia, it's the space, the lifestyle - it sure has it's faults, the main one being its so far away from everything!  But I can't imagine living anywhere else.  Ever.

Unlike the OP, I don't see this as (misdefined) jingoism, I just see this as completely natural. 

 

Had to look that up .  I would never be so bold to say this is the greatest country in the world - i've lived in three - visited a lot more.  I don't think you truly know a country unless you live in it immerse yourself in the culture, learn the language if possible, not as a tourist.  But of the three I've lived in, Australia is the best so far.

Of course your circumstances at the time may dictate how your feel about a place - maybe having my daughter here makes this home.  

I've been to 27 different countries and Australia is by far my second choice to America (I'd pick Perth). 
What's funny is even in America there are so many different states and lifestyles that we all have choices of what kind of "country" we want to live in.  I have a good friend of mine that grew up in Urban Seattle and he hates Nebraska because it's so open and "boring" (his words).  On the other hand I lived in Chicago for 2 years and absolutely hated it because it was too dense and urban.  I love Nebraska's openness.  Two different worlds really and they're both every bit as much America.

tuwood - 2013-02-08 3:00 PM

jobaxas - 2013-02-07 9:41 PM

Goosedog - 2013-02-08 1:42 PM

jobaxas - 2013-02-07 9:14 PM

Fast forward now in Australia - this is great - this is home.  I went back to England over Christmas - couldn't way to get back to Australia, it's the space, the lifestyle - it sure has it's faults, the main one being its so far away from everything!  But I can't imagine living anywhere else.  Ever.

Unlike the OP, I don't see this as (misdefined) jingoism, I just see this as completely natural. 

 

Had to look that up .  I would never be so bold to say this is the greatest country in the world - i've lived in three - visited a lot more.  I don't think you truly know a country unless you live in it immerse yourself in the culture, learn the language if possible, not as a tourist.  But of the three I've lived in, Australia is the best so far.

Of course your circumstances at the time may dictate how your feel about a place - maybe having my daughter here makes this home.  

I've been to 27 different countries and Australia is by far my second choice to America (I'd pick Perth). 
What's funny is even in America there are so many different states and lifestyles that we all have choices of what kind of "country" we want to live in.  I have a good friend of mine that grew up in Urban Seattle and he hates Nebraska because it's so open and "boring" (his words).  On the other hand I lived in Chicago for 2 years and absolutely hated it because it was too dense and urban.  I love Nebraska's openness.  Two different worlds really and they're both every bit as much America.

I've never visited the States and i'm sure if ever i do there will be parts I love and parts I hate.

  However until I live somewhere I can never trust that impression.  I loved the Greek Island I went on holiday to and met my husband......I loved living there in the summer holiday months.  But in the winter - I've never been so cold, lonely and miserable as I was there especially at Christmas time.

By contrast I hated Athens in the summer months - stifling and polluted.  Couldn't get work outside of hospitality.

Living in England was tough for us as a couple - DHhated it coming from a sunny climate to what he felt was a grey and miserable place (we had one summer where we only had one sunny day!)

so he hated England, by this time I hated Greece, so we decided on Australia - something different!  It has a Greek Island climate a lot of the time and an inherited English culture.  I love it though I think DH would move back to Greece in a heartbeat if i said let's do that!

jobaxas - 2013-02-07 8:41 PM

Goosedog - 2013-02-08 1:42 PM

jobaxas - 2013-02-07 9:14 PM

Fast forward now in Australia - this is great - this is home.  I went back to England over Christmas - couldn't way to get back to Australia, it's the space, the lifestyle - it sure has it's faults, the main one being its so far away from everything!  But I can't imagine living anywhere else.  Ever.

Unlike the OP, I don't see this as (misdefined) jingoism, I just see this as completely natural. 

 

Had to look that up .  I would never be so bold to say this is the greatest country in the world - i've lived in three - visited a lot more.  I don't think you truly know a country unless you live in it immerse yourself in the culture, learn the language if possible, not as a tourist.  But of the three I've lived in, Australia is the best so far.

Of course your circumstances at the time may dictate how your feel about a place - maybe having my daughter here makes this home.  

I loved living in Australia when I was a kid. I lived in Melbourne and Perth. The East coast is just like here with rain and "gloom" to me, and the West Coast is just like California. Even being so young, what really struck me about it was their independence. Seemed like they had their corner of the world and they really didn't give a rat's a$$ about the rest of it. I would love to go back, but like you said... visiting and living are two different things. The people their were great.

Bluntly, this says exactly how I feel and, unfortunately, feel it's true today.
NSFW for language.  But listen to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVwUphZ37Ww

I really love that show. And yes, I mostly agree with the sentiment in the clip.

I was waiting to see if someone would post that clip!