Forget the USA, Europe should take the global lead

[conalrehill]

A big debate is underway around the world about the United States failing in its long-time role as the global moral center of gravity. Who will takes its place? Peter Goldmark is nominating Europe, arguing that it implements more just and sustainable environmental and economic policies.



The moral center of gravity in the world today is shifting toward Europe. There are many reasons for this, some historical and some accidental.



The European project



Western Europe, for centuries the arena of some of the bloodiest violence known to the world, now has a 50-year record of peace and structured dispute resolution.



Europe has supported the UN and other emerging patterns of global governmance, while over the past two decades U.S. support has been episodic and ambivalent.



After spending five decades in the fitful process of building “the European project,” Europe today is the only part of the globe with a successful form of supranational government.



Europe has championed and financed advanced positions on many large global issues, including protection of the environment, peacekeeping and aid to developing countries.



Virtually no nation in the world fears that any European nation will bomb or invade it.



Growing Muslim minorities



The five largest countries of Europe, plus others such as Denmark, wrestle visibly and painfully with the difficulties posed by the presence of important and growing Muslim minorities.



These countries are thus modern laboratories where both the tensions and the potential terms of mutual understanding between the West and Islam are tested and explored daily in concrete settings.



Moral balance of power



Europe has supported the United Nations and other emerging patterns of global governance, while over the past two decades U.S. support has been episodic and ambivalent.



The picture of Europe playing a pivotal role in the future global agenda will surprise both Americans and some Europeans themselves.



It is a curious situation: The continent that generated centuries of violence and bloodshed — from the Crusades to World War II — and that served as the cradle of the sciences that eventually produced modern weapons of mass destruction, is now well positioned to hold the moral balance of power among the community of nations and in global public opinion.



This is a position of immense strength and importance, but one that Europe itself seems frequently not to recognize.



A global pacesetter



Compare contemporary European and U.S. performance in the following areas:



• Access, cost and coverage of health care.

• Management of free trade obligations

• Effectiveness and scope of international development assistance

• Investment in, and sound management of, public infrastructure (transportation, water, sewage, etc.)

• National energy policies

• Campaign financing standards

• National environmental policies

• Human rights policies

• Support for the elderly



It is hard to run one’s eye down this list and conclude that Europe is vastly more “clumsy and slow” than the United States.



American self-paralysis?



And over the past decade, the United States has frequently been immobilized by internal divisions over issues ranging from economic and quality-of-life questions — like health care and social security — to ideological hot-button issues, such as gun control, abortion and capital punishment.



These internal divisions are profound, even with regard to self-evident needs like overseas assistance for family planning and women’s health rights.



Ready to lead?



By contrast, the Europeans have acquired the practical experience and internal political latitude over the past five decades to lead in the building of the kind of new institutional arrangements that are necessary to meet today’s global challenges.

[Seismic Anamoly]

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO FOOTAGE OF PETER GOLDMARK FINALIZING HIS "EUROPEAN PROJECT OF GLOBAL LEADERSHIP" PROPOSAL.......







He has, of course, graciously offered his services as "Supreme Leader of the Cause", stating that he would, without Hesitation or Reservation, "Lead by Example"........



The EU is leaning towards an overwhelming Confirmation and Approval of his offer.











Your "Redneck" Pal......

[RonOnGuitar]

LOL, Seismo!



But we should keep some sympathy in mind, too; not only because Steve has been limited to just one handle (and I think the "I'm a girl in Zambia" persona would've been the better choice this time out - but I digress), but also becuase he's been reduced to nothing more than regurgitating such tediously boring, unoriginal, unattributed, copy & paste jobs. Tsk, tsk.



And it's slagging behind in the usual irrational, personal/emotional issue rantings we've all come to know and recognise - with the misc bits of Marx, the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, capitalism, Engels, the dialectic and so on mixed in, of course.



It's enough to just break a person's heart, I tell ya......

[The Real Girl From Latvia]

sir it has come to my attention sir that someone with the nickname Girl From Latvia is imitating my writing style who has much less education than me and rather more amateur efforts sir, and the fundy redjobs who wish to take over the world with free markets and capitolism because as is my contention sir if i may be permitted to say so if the fundy redjobs rule the world you would be quite happy sir



so sir now i know why the elderly professor becames angry and the board is thinly populated viz a viz educated people it is because as is my contention sir if i may be permitted to say so you fundy redjobs have a sneer in your tone and try to patronize people who are much cleverer and more educated than you by posting statements saying that 'this is up to them' and this of course this seems absurd and improprietous to them because it is you fundy redjobs who seem to lack the proper education required sir sir forgive my candid statement but my lecturers are all very much more educated than you with label deals, sell-out gigs, critically-acclaimed albums, ex-pro careers as long as your arm, played with some of the biggest names in music sir, and also been awarded a readership and have had 5 journal article published sir so that's an album contract and a book contract and wouldnt you just love to have either, eh?



sir i left Latvia to improve my education but also to escape the ignorant Latvians who see fundy capitolist redjob free markets as a good thing sir, and just signed a book contract with a real academic publisher and have published over 15 articles in international journals as long as my arm so to be quite candid with you sir and to risk being rude which is uncharacteristic of myself sir i have now found out why this board has very few intelligent visitors and those who do visit are driven to anger by the ignorance of yourself and others and the patronizing tones of people who are of lesser intelligence than them. I hope you fundy redjob way of life dies out in the next few generations and that I am the real girl from Latvia and not to imitate my writing style with the oxygen of publicity and if i were your president clinton i would never to have stood next to your monster bushy shrubs and took poor people money for redjobland inspired soonamo



I will now cancelled my EZ board account

[conalrehill]

Well, I assure you I'm not the boss, although you all know that we share computers.



Why, instead of engaging with the specific points in the post, do you reply with infantile stupidity? Is it because you are infantile and stupid? The boss and my other colleagues think so, but I gave you a chance. I will admit that their behaviour a few weeks ago was also infantile, but I have always, up to now, been polite.



Alas, they are right. You are so deeply and incorrigibly stupid that you can't even see the extremely weak position your country is actually in. Your debilitating lack of social cohesion at home amongst a semi-literate population. Your self-inflicted lack of basic manufacturing capability. Your oil-dependency. Your massive basic trade deficit that relies on inward investment to balance it. Your weak and ineffective ground forces that can only bully tinpot states and couldn't even begin to think about maintaining global control without multiplying your already massive military budget by ten-fold. Your susceptibility to terrorist attack. The more you try to expand, the weaker and more vulnerable you become.



Please try to grow out of this ridiculous tunnel-visioned supremacism and read some intelligent books. I know you will find it difficult, but just try.



I'll come back one more time in a few months time to see if there has been any improvement in your thinking. However, I'm not holding my breath.

[Seismic Anamoly]

Quote:

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I'm not holding my breath.............

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Please, please........don't let us Stupid Uneducated Rednecks hold you back......



Hold Away.....for a few Months.

[The Girl from Ipanema]

sirs what you write is, how you say? very humorous.



but, forsooth, what i ask to you is do not take <i>my name</i> in vain.



with sincerityness,

Garota de Ipanema





Olha que coisa mais linda

mais cheia de graça

É ela menina que vem e que passa

nun doce balanço, caminho do mar



(Tall and tan and young and lovely

The girl from Ipanema goes walking

And when she passes, each one she passes goes - ah)

[RonOnGuitar]

Oops, forgot to take the credit as "The Girl From Ipanema".



(Go ahead - hop, bop, bossanova and sing along to the midi file link!)



Thank you, thank you very much.



Announcer:"The Girl from Ipanema has left the building. I repeat - The Girl from Ipanema has left the building"....

[conalrehill]

I can't be bothered to stay here when someone is constantly telling me I'm someone else.



Well, Rononguitar, you can try in vain to be funny, but nothing you ever post will be as funny as your classic about the Russian test-kits as Weapons of Mass Destruction. You had a whole room full of us rolling around laughling, and the URL was passed around British universities for weeks. Tears down our cheeks, really.



That was the mark of a genuine buffoon.



I'll not bother coming back, I'll just do some more research you can get yourself off hunting .....

[Seismic Anamoly]

Quote:

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I'll not bother coming back.....

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What is that, the 3rd, 4th, or 5th time you've made that proclamation?? Give it a rest already.....

Quote:

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......you can get yourself off hunting .....

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Oh, I always do....but ya got the species of Game wrong....this Stupid Uneducated Redneck hunts These.....they have MUCH better RACKS....

[russky joe]

Hey, Test-Kit Ronnie, FYI the boss got it wrong. I'm not from Latvia, and certainly not from Ipanema. My mom is from Latvia and my dad is from New York. Just to put you straight. Sheesh, you are as dumb as it gets, wooden-top.



Hey, Seismick Spell-Check. Ya hunt women? Well, I'm better-looking that that sparrow-brained silicon-injected bimbo in the photo.



Why don't ya come hunting me? Then I'd have an excuse to chop off your little richard, ya frickin' stupid sexist thug.

[Seismic Anamoly]

[russky joe]

oops missed the g outta jpg



Here ya go - Seismick Spellcheck goes a-courting.



yee-ha

[ans]

Conal Rehill:



'Russky Joe' was a girl from Latvia, by the way, and antman and the rest were all our friends.



The boss let us go with it for a while, then he got a bit mad with us when he started getting the blame for it. Then the board owner e-mailed him to complain about the insulting messages coming from his computers, and he banned us from posting.





* * *



I'm going for good now, I will cancel my ezboard account.





p210.ezboard.com/fmymp3bo...=811.topic





* * *



Oopsie! Now correct me if I'm in error here, but it wasn't the 'boss' persona who 'got it wrong'.



It was the Conal nick who outed Russky as 'girl from Latvia'



Tho when the Russky nick denies it, it blames 'The Boss' for the mis-identification . . . then





'The boss let us go with it'





So Conal is Russky's boss and the professor is Conal's boss? lmao



I thought they were his 'research assistants, actually'



Questionnaire:



" 'Conal' will not be back. I've just banned him permanently from posting from my computers to this and any other message-board."





So when did the Conal persona finally realized the truth the boss evidently hid, that LOTS of computer in merry olde england can access this forum? And is the Boss persona now MAD at the Conal persona for ignoring his ban?



And when the Boss Q persona assures us that 'Conal' will not be back, must we from now on take that to mean that 'Conal WILL be back' and when it says 'I'm going for good now, I will cancel my ezboard account.' that apparently means 'I am NOT going for good now'?



You must have a headache keeping all this straight . . .

[russky natasha]

"Oopsie! Now correct me if I'm in error here,"



You're in error. Total error. In fact you ARE an error, Test-Kit Ronnie, you propagandist oaf.



You're still pressing this 'all the same person' thing aren't you? You crack us up, you really do.



All that endless Googling, and searching through this message-board, and you're STILL clueless.



Ronnie, you have given so many people real belly-laughs. You are our hero. But it's late and we're off to the pub now.







The boss is back in the morning. You won't tell him, will you? Please, Ronnie.



Big kisses and wet dreams, Ronnie.



Natasha