81–90 of 165 posts
Americans living abroad are not even allowed to give up citizenship to avoid paying U.S. taxes. That's wrong, along with many other facts in this article.
I think he meant that if you want to avoid paying U.S. taxes, you have to give up citizenship, which is true to my understanding.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I once had a conversation with a Frenchman (in France) about how he had berated some poor American girl (also in France) for not knowing that Zurich was in Switzerland. I promptly quizzed him on which states 5 American cities were in, all larger than Zurich. He failed miserably. The United States is geographically almost as large as the whole of Europe. The closest foreign border to me is Niagara Falls just over 400m…
The US state of Montana is slightly larger than Germany. I can't name more than one city there and many airlines don't even fly to the state. The US is really big!
I'd like to suggest another reason for large military expenditures that have nothing to do with corruption. The US has the only two-ocean navy, and a very extensive one at that. A lot of the burden of protecting shipping lanes for members of the "global system" is covered by the States. That's really, really expensive. Of course, that means that countries that don't want to play by US rules (North Korea, Iran, Cuba)…
For the record, there are other multi-ocean navies: russia, south africa, australia, canada, and argentina among them. I think that's a pretty small factor compared to the influence of the military industrial complex. The size of the US navy dwarfs every other country considerably, even when factoring in oceanic boundaries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_warships_in_service_w... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L…
It is not very well known however that Germany saw a much
more vigilant communism hunt at about the same time. While
in the US only about a dozen people ever went to prison
for being Communists, that same number runs in the
thousands in Germany. The communist party was forbidden by
the German high court, and party members who continued
their activities were arrested and sent to prison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi
The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an
extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several
smaller facilities throughout the city. It was widely
regarded as one of the most effective and repressive
intelligence and secret police agencies in the world. The
Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield
and Sword of the Party), that is the ruling Socialist
Unity Party of Germany (SED). Now considered a criminal
organisation, several Stasi officials were prosecuted for
their crimes after 1990.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/
Incredibly, not a single mention of East Germany or the GDR in this entire document.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I promptly quizzed him on which states 5 American cities were in, all larger than Zurich. Who cares about states in a foreign country? In this context the size of the city or state is not of any interest.
So, in other words, if it interests you, it's fair to quiz someone else about it, but if it doesn't interest you, it's not fair to quiz you about it.
Oh, you don't find that interesting? Well, hardly anyone outside Sweden probably does. Pointless knowledge.
I'd like to suggest another reason for large military expenditures that have nothing to do with corruption. The US has the only two-ocean navy, and a very extensive one at that. A lot of the burden of protecting shipping lanes for members of the "global system" is covered by the States. That's really, really expensive. Of course, that means that countries that don't want to play by US rules (North Korea, Iran, Cuba)…
For the record, there are other multi-ocean navies: russia, south africa, australia, canada, and argentina among them. I think that's a pretty small factor compared to the influence of the military industrial complex. The size of the US navy dwarfs every other country considerably, even when factoring in oceanic boundaries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_warships_in_service_w... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, in other words, if it interests you, it's fair to quiz someone else about it, but if it doesn't interest you, it's not fair to quiz you about it.
Do you want me to quiz you on the provinces of Sweden? Oh, you don't find that interesting? Well, hardly anyone outside Sweden probably does. Pointless knowledge.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I promptly quizzed him on which states 5 American cities were in, all larger than Zurich. Who cares about states in a foreign country? In this context the size of the city or state is not of any interest.
The point is that knowing that Zurich is in Switzerland is more similar to knowing that Denver is in Colorado than it is to knowing that Denver is in the United States. Presumably the size of the city is interesting because the implicit assumption is that knowing where Zurich is important because Zurich is a big city.
A typical foreigner to the US probably knows where some large cities in US are without having the slightest clue about which state many of them reside in.
That is my perception of it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you want me to quiz you on the provinces of Sweden? Oh, you don't find that interesting? Well, hardly anyone outside Sweden probably does. Pointless knowledge.
Most people could name a grand total of one city in all of Sweden. Just not on people's radars the way the US is.
Is the state that large US cities reside in on (foreign) peoples radars?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Germany also has a diverse culture Compared to what? Compared to Madison Wisconsin, maybe, compared to all of Wisconsin, probably not, compared to Texas or CA, not a chance. Heck, South San Jose is more diverse.
It depends on whether you define diversity as being 'ethnically' diverse or culturally diverse. Obviously, Germany is ethnically less diverse than, say, California, just as much as any American city is ethnically less diverse than London. If we're talking about 'cultural' diversity the regional differences between southern, northern, eastern and western Germany can be extreme, yet maybe difficult to notice for someon…
Hmm. Los Angeles may have something to say about that.