Because of your avaristic obsession with the United States of America...you don't need me to tell you that President Obama told you yesterday what you already knew...America is Number ONE!
"No matter what the naysayers tell us, no matter how dark the other side tries to make things look, the fact is there is not another country on earth that would not gladly trade places with the United States of America.” Precious Leader.
"...[W]e’ve still got the best workers in the world. We’ve got the best entrepreneurs in the world. We’ve got the best scientists and researchers in the world, the best colleges,"...the best cheese, the best dirty bookstores and the cleanist interstate restrooms! Precious Leader.
SCOREBOARD CHUMPS!!!!
Sorry World to put your various histories, cultures and achievments into such a deep, dark, abysmal shadow but,...not that sorry.
Maybe a puppy'll cheer you up?
Oh Damn! Even puppies know.
USA! USA! USA! USA!...
Not going to bite.... but to say you couldn't tell us this if it wasn't for the English dude Tim Berners Lee who invented the world wide web.
ReplyDeleteDamm I said I wasn't going to bite
God save the Queen :)
It wouldn't be quite so ridiculous if it wasn't for the fact that every US Institution wasn't inherited from Britain and if America's place in the world wasn't a faint echo of the British Empire.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough. I do so admire the self confidence of your Nation though.
ReplyDeleteI have little confidence in it outside of the South. :)
ReplyDeleteThese remarks from our precious leader ate just one example why.
I may have played this post a little too straight faced considering that US hubris is mostly beyond satire.
I did sense your sarcasm, although USA is clearing up at the Olympics
ReplyDeleteWe also have the best steroids in the world...:).
DeleteWatch the beginning clip of the first season of Newsroom. Trust me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88XP4fAyV6o
ReplyDeleteI've seen it. Ha.
DeleteI know as I go through all the free testing and treatment accompanying my somewhat complicated pregnancy, I bitterly regret not paying hundreds of dollars a month all my life in insurance costs for the benefit, simply enjoying the consumerist pleasures of paying out of my pocket for it all, or being poor enough for Medicare.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't you be my president too, Obama?
Be bitter...you can never be an American.
DeleteAnd all the while I'm having to suffer through a total tax burden 4% lower than the average for those lucky free marketeers in your fine country despite being ludicrously overpaid.
DeleteSarcasm aside, I can't get Mexican food here, so he does have a point.
That was pretty clever.
DeleteThe defacto empire hey! Dont let your nations enemies here you say that. After all they have been claiming an american empire since the fall of the wall. Yet your government points to a coalition of the willing rather than an empire.
ReplyDeleteFFS get over yourselves grow some balls and call it an empire because that is exactly what it is.
As for the British empire, what a magnificent achievement that was. Shame in the end it caused more damage than good.
It's one of their more maddening quirks that even as the Americans were burning Atlanta, slaughtering Indians and going on "rabbit hunts" in the Philipines and on they've always insisted they aren't imperialists.
DeleteI have legal obligations to the federal gov. of the united states but, it's certainly not my nation.
My own feeling on Imperialism are similar to those initially expressed by Robin Winks...imperialism has no moral character. It's simply a vehicle and an institution. It's the practitioners and their acts that should be judged. Some are better than others...the U.S., perhaps because of self denial, is one of the worst.
Empire never sits easy with a populace. Two main reasons. One there is an angst that you are seen to be doing the right thing. The moral high ground so to speak. Secondly and more importantly is there will always be a percentage of people who have no moral scruples when it comes to the power that the nation state wields.
DeleteIn a nutshell you either love empire and all that it brings, or you hate empire and either wait or take action to see it fall.
Its a very interesting topic
I certainly think it is.
DeleteThe day to day workings of the British Empire, for instance, tell a more complicated story...from top to bottom, from London to Maritius there were people that resisted the Empire but, there were also people who bought in completely and many many people who just viewed it as the circumstance of their existence...and went about their lives.
We've threatened to talk about this before. I guess we'll have to get around to it eventually.
"many many people who just viewed it as the circumstance of their existence...and went about their lives"
DeleteI think this is very true and apt, and also probably the case of many other systems, from the original empire: Rome, to choatic warlords of the the Viking Age (ones I've had the most dealings with). Sadly some are too obscure to know for sure.
So much emphasis, then as now, is put on the mechanics as the real criminal, as opposed to the people, whether its capitalists, communists, kings, or emperors. As with any system, the further you get from a single person, the worse it gets.
A lot of my own work was on this issue...common people on the ground taking advantage of the situation, not as an act of rebellion against Empire but, because it offered individuals certain angles they could play for personal benefit.
DeleteThat and going native...to me the most fascinating aspect of Imperialism.
Going native... and of course the inevitable 'bringing native back home with you'. Plenty of both of these visible in the Roman Empire, as well as the British one... Vindaloo for tea anyone?
DeleteI should also add there is lots of evidence for this in the Viking world too, including the site I just finished on, Vikings bringing stuff with them, sending some ideas and influences back home, and going native themselves. I guess it is in us to play the angles, adapt what we like and pass it on, blend in to some extent, and retain some of what we are from.
DeleteIt's the Mr Kurtz types I like...the one's that head off into the bush and decide to stay.
DeleteOne of our next projects, is on Cumbrias West coast, and we got 20 christian burials of 10th century date, to all intents and purposes, 'anglo-saxon' burials, in a church with tons, and I mean shed loads, of cross fragments, hogbacks, and other Scandinavian stone carving, with norse mythical scenes. We got skeletons and teeth and we get to do some isotope analysis, which means we can see where these guys grew up, of as I suspect some are Norwegian, then we really do have some Mr Kurtz's from 1000 yearrs ago, can't wait to find out.
DeleteJust look for a pair snips for cutting the telegraph wires...you can be sure then.
DeleteAnd credit me ****! B-A-R-T-L-A-M
One of the best scenes from Heart of Darkness is Marlow sailing out down the Thames and contemplating the Roman soldiers that had sailed up it as Imperial conqourers.
Delete