Gandelf wrote:I remember the days of old Prydwen Net, when you used to be pro-American Xest. Why the u-turn?
Can't quote any of your posts, cos they went with old Prydwen Net, but I can remember vaguely that you liked the USA.
Depends really, I've always liked parts of it, but when I tend to refer to America as a whole I base it on the idea that George Bush was voted in by a majority, and the same people that vote George Bush are the same people that make America as a whole such a bad place.
The problem is also however that even the better educated states are falling to general American idiocy now - this article demonstrates that, Illinois used to be a great state, as did New York but even states like this are falling. It's got to the point where despite finally a change in American opinion towards the democrats it's already too late, to achieve that swing the Democrats have had to give up on issues like gun control to make these voters swing over to them in the first place. The Democrats are most certainly an improvement, but not enough so to pull America out of the state of utter idiocy it's dug itself into.
Probably one of the biggest ironies of the whole situation in the US is that one of the major last remaining bastions of sanity, California, is actually run by someone who was both a joke to those of us outside the US and a Republican - Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnie truly does seem to be on the ball on a lot of important issues, so far he seems to have his head screwed on for the most part, having got a lot of things right in his policy. He's one of the strongest backers on resolving the climate change issue, he's against the Iraq war situation, he's strongly anti-racism, he's for sensible levels of gun control, pro-gay rights, and pro-choice in terms of abortion etc.
America as a country (i.e. minus the people) is in some parts a beautiful place, Arizona was still one of the greatest holidays I've ever had - I'd recommend everyone visit the southern Arizona desert regions, Sedona, the Grand Canyon and head North just into Utah to see Monument Valley. California has some beautiful beaches, places like lake Tahoe are fantastic to see also. The Rockies are probably also well worth a look but I've only ever seen them from the Canadian side really so I can't comment on the US side!
