rising prices and kicking folks when they are down...a bit of a rant.

[Oscar Wilde]

.... I'm getting such a smug and nasty attitude from these people, I can't believe it.

First .... keep in mind that these folk's attitudes do not necessarily represent the mindset of their fellow country men. Second .... some folk's have an annoying habit of frequently reminding the less fortunate of the benevolent contributions .... rubbing salt into the wound sorta thing.

We're all soon gonna walk into a store and find that either there is little to buy and less we can afford.

O.W.

[Echo2]

Apologize to no one.
Remind those of our sacrifice and don't
confuse arrogance with leadership.
The count is 104,366
dead, brave Americans.

buried on foreign soil....

[slowz1k]

Dang RA!!!!

It's taken me almost 30 years to develop a deep seated hatred for the French, and now you've gone and screwed it up!!!!
Thanks A Lot!!!:D:D:D

[Recently_Awoken]

I haven't traveled extensively, but my folks have. I suppose this is yet one more quiet sign that this generation's fortunes will be less than the last's. At any rate, I sympathize with your frustrations about the world's perceived opinion of the US. If you take those comments and hates to heart, a normal reaction would be to retract, shoot them the bird, and say "piss-off and have a nice day." But before you do, I'd like to make this known...

My folks recently traveled to Normandy, France (among other places). If you'd like to experience the opposite of your internet forum-American-hating crowd, go there. Talk to the folks. Even the young folks (by young, I mean their 40 and 50 year olds). Their parent's told and taught them of American generosity. Hell, their fields and glens are dotted with permanent reminders of the ultimate generosities we extended them. ENTIRE TOWNS over there honor our fathers and grandfathers every year. They hold the same contempt for their government and it's politically over-correct politics and silliness as we do of ours. Normandy is sort of like our backwoods here in the US. They are country folk, and they remember. And every country has its own backwoods and good folk.

I know this is but one example to counter the numerous negative viewpoints we all get from around the world, but it's my belief the negative ones are the young (dumb) ones or the ignorant socialists who actually believe their system works long term (how's that workin for you Greece?). They see us as non-socialist-greedy capitalists (which is changing, God help us), and they see us dolling out aid and charity in the billions, and it really really pisses them off that we can do this and they can't. So, they ignore our charity, laugh at our troubles, and sit around waiting for their subsidy checks and spew hate on the internet.

There's still plenty of old timers around the world who know the US. Who have seen her generosity and are thankful for what she has done and (even when our own financial SHTF is imminent) what she continues to do for the rest of the world. Hell, in rebels in LIBYA!!!! They weren't screaming for the UN or NATO... they were BEGGING the US to come and help them!

There will always be "ass-hats" who live to spew hatred of the US. If I lived under a socialist government, and viewed the US from the outside in (and I was young and dumb), I'd be ignorant and jealous as well. But this is no reason to retract our policies around the world. We just need to do some political house cleaning here at home (and understatement).

Fear not, because not everybody hates us.

RA

[Skyowl's Wife]

China and Russia both sent rescue teams and food to Japan.

I agree with "bring it all home", I couldn't vote for Ron Paul in the last presidential primary season because of his isolationist ideas. Have read a lot of stuff the Founding Fathers wrote since then, what Ron Paul was preaching is in accordance with what they were teaching. They intended that we mind our own business.

[herbalpagan]

I'm of the opinion that we should shut off everything, bring our boys home (that spend in their country) and shut down most of our bases (that their economies suck off of) and take care of ourselves. no more foreign aid, no more food, no more anything at least until we fix our own woes. No more "police" for the world, no more UN giving...in fact, ask them to leave.
Leave them all with a Nixon style parting shot: you won't have America to kick around any more! I don't see China and Russia jumping into all the wars and such...do they even give charity to places?

[Omegaman]

I don't think they would be so smug if we sat out WWII. Here is a factor they forget and that is most of us pay $800+ per month for heath insurance and they get it for free. If we stopped giving money and military aid to all of the countries we do and just let them sort out their own problems we would have a lot more money to pay for gas because our taxes would not be sucking our paychecks dry.

[Skyowl]

+1 what he said...

[Brother Bill]

I have seen this trend for many years now. There are always people that want an American handout but snicker at us when we have trouble. They call us smug and say we are to big for our own good. The most giving country in the world and we are smug. Often other countries hope we will fall not seeing just how it will affect them in the long run. If we can no longer afford to give then who will help them when they need it? Sometimes I think we should help our own before we send it overseas. Why should one American child go hungry when we are sending so much food to others? It seems that if we help we are labeled smug and if we don't then we are selfish. All I can say is that we are a proud people and we should never let anyone take that away from us. Either in word or deed.

[Skyowl's Wife]

Something else they haven't thought of, obviously...

We are the leader of the world, monetarily. When we go down, ALL of them go down.

[herbalpagan]

I'm on several forums and I'm seeing people really getting nervous about the rising prices. Many have "how much has gas gone up in your area" threads. Well, since this is the world wide web, there are people from other countries on too. I'm getting such a smug and nasty attitude from these people, I can't believe it.

These folks seem to think it's funny that we are starting to see hardships! Honestly, some of faced $8 a gallon gas for many years, but we never laugh at that. They think it's a riot that some may actually go without due to rising prices. I had enough today..
Americans are always there to help people when there is any crisis. Americans have saved these peoples arses in war after war, events, invasions, hardships and whatever.
Americans are the most giving people in the world, we give foreign aid and food to everyone. Our government might suck right now, and might be doing more harm than good for it's people, but the average guy hurts just as much in one country as the next when these things happen. to say that it's about time we hurt more is just plain nasty.
:mad: These folks don't think about how it's going to trickle back to them when the country THEY rely on for a handout, tourism, business and food is hurting.