The French can go to hell!

[tripleplay]

Personal freedoms yes, but that will soon change. Civil liberties no. Overall though, what other contry has opened its doors wider to millions of people all over the world seeking a life without oppression? We send billions of dollars to countries in food to starving masses of people. And people still want to say its our foreign policy that is to blame? If you take personal freedoms away from terrorist states (their ability to create weapons of mass destruction) and it pisses them off because they are hungry -is that failed foreign policy? If you place sanctions on Iraq instead of bombing them it is meant to get the people of Iraq to rise up and remove Saddam themselves. The Kurds would have been willing to fight Saddam with our help be he commited genocide on them. We are not starving Iraqi people. Saddam has billions of dollars at his disposal but he prefers to spend on weapons of mass destruction. He lets his people starve so critics can say it all Americas fault. No matter what we do were wrong and that is why Americans are angry at the reat of the free worlds skewed perspective because they are incorrect.

[tripleplay]

Getting tough around here now. Americans have been jolted into making a big descision theyve long wanted to make. Heres whats going to happen now. The whole issue of U.S. Foreign Policy towards Isreal was this: As long as the Arab world wants Jews exterminated we will defend you. We will make you the most powerful force in the Middle east because of these threats. You can take on the whole Arab world with your US funded military might and still beat them in a war. And they did this in the 60's. In the beginning the world inserted the creation of the state of Israel into this Arab neighborhood, and the child grew up to be somewhat defensive and eventually hardline as regards the Palestinians. Blow us up and we will hold you down attitude is not difficult to assume when poeple are being killed by dynamite covered terrorists. But lets face it- the cycle of hate is never going to solve the Palistinian quest for statehood. The US will solve it now. Its taken so long because of the words most of the Arab world has up till now. As we now see most of the Arab world have adopted stances against terrorism. But up until now they never really wanted to negotiate. If Saddam destroyed Israel ho-hum too bad tough luck. But now Arab states seem to care about fairness in this matter, a fact which has not been lost on America It was always kill all the Jews. They Arab world must take responsibility for the genocidal words they have been spouting that has kept this problem from being solved, but should be given credit for changing that stance. In return the world now awaits Israel change of attitude, too, and their stance on the Pasestinin problem that must change along with it. The world should now know that Americans are aware of this Palestinian problem and are going to make sure our President actually does what no one heretofore could imagine. We are going to legislate to allow the Palestinians to actually create an independent state of their own with Jeurusalam as their capital as it was. In return Iseael will be allowed to expand their own state size wise on the new borders. BUT- and I mean BUT- terrorism must stop immediately for this to go foerward. Unlike Israel the US is not an intractable entity. President Bush will call on all Arab states to quickly form a Coalition to first off distinguish those fellow states that sponsor terrorism and those that dont, and force them to stop in light of the fact that they have no more legitimate reason to hate Israel, or at least be able to tolerate their existence, which in these troubled times is not too bad. The new Palistinian state will serve as a model espousing a moderate, fair, balanced attitude toward Israel. Then, Arab states will deal with further oubursts of anti-Zionism as their own problem, their own internal matter, and I would hope actually get tough with each other over the terrorist stance of their delinquent,as they will be then regarded, states. And there will be no more reason to use the Palestinian problem as the match to set the world aflame, in my the NUMBER ONE REASON for the terrorism to have escalated to this level of evil, and why innocent Americans have been dragged into what was once only originally Israels problem. However, now that it is OUR problem, America will now show the Arab world that we can solve problems for them, too. Heres is what is going to happen. The President will eventually meet with leaders of the Arab world ( even Saddam will be invited ), to meet with Sharon in an unprecidented Summit meeting. At that meeting the US, with United nations backing, perhaps the only dissenter will be Israel, will enact a charter that will set the wheels in motion for the new Palistinian state to be created. As President Bush himself has said, it has always been in his mind the Palistinians should have their own state, and that is the way most Americans think about this, but terrorism has stalled the process for years. In the new Charter Israel will get more land overall, and Palistine will become another Arab state. As far as Sharon saying Israel will not be another Chechoslovakia, used to appease the Arab world, this is not appeasement. This is simply what is fair. And Israel must understand this and get beyond their fears of nterrorism and know that the new arrangement will mean they can live in peace and brotherhood with their neighbors and we will continue to protect their interests as long as they cooperate with what the US and the rest of the world knows is the right thing to do. With Gods blessing, thy will be done. God bless America, land of the free.

[Cons]

My British boys are fighting along the US forces and to be honest I'm not entirely happy about that. But I do respect that the two countries form the strongest alliance in the world and that unfortunately we must follow the US blindly into battle. Even when it means that they or "we" are responsible for bombing residential areas (by mistake or not) and killing innocent people in much the same fashion as the people which took down the twin towers in NY.

We recently touched the notion of personal freedom and to be honest I don't think the US is the best example of that in the world. There are not only a few but at least a dozen places on Earth which make the American notion of freedom pale in comparison. It makes the American notion of "land of the free" quite meaningless when compared with the life these people enjoy. Examples would be small places like Alderney or greater nations like the United Kingdom. You could also include Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, or even Iceland) or many other nations in the European Union or elsewhere. To be honest I don't believe people in the US know what freedom really is. I must truthfully say that decades ago they set an example for the world and were at the forefront of world democracy, but today that picture is long gone.

In the US you can barely gamble legally. In the US you have to declare your profits from gambling (or face severe consequences) and pay tax from it. In the US you can get arrested for not weating a seatbelt. In the US the government used to shoot live ammunition at students, murdering many - just like China. In the US prison conditions are similar to third world countries, so bad that even Canada refused to extradite someone because of the attrocities one could face, gang-rape probably being the mildest. In the US you can get drafted into the army and be sent to certain death even though you can't buy a beer. A 20-year-old American friend of mine was sent to jail because he was "caught" three times with a brewski, even though he could easily be taken to war and killed. How is that for freedom? A recent Newsweek review showed that the country with the highest percentage of its population in prison is... the United States. If I remember correctly 1 in 20 people living in Texas is behind bars, and the statistics all over the country are growing. Russia used to always hold the lead in these stats but the US has now taken the lead. Compared to the European Union the US is one big prison, and freedon there is abysmal compared to Europe. Like I said, I think people in the US no longer recognise what freedon is, yet they go around singing "land of the free" even though they have no clue what it really is. I often wonder why that is so. Just like kids in communist China you go around swearing allegiance to the flag, which I consider to be a blatant act of brainwashing. In the United Kingdom we would never allow such things to happen. How can you hammer such things into children's minds? Here is it up to the people to make up their own minds what they think about their country, about their culture, about their leaders. Nobody forces you into anything, we are free to think what we like. In the US if you refuse to swear allegiance or adore the American flag you will be ostracized, you will no longer fit in with others, you will lose everything and will not be able to participate in society. All because you are different. And all this is happening in a country where one of the founding factors was the notion that everyone should be free to believe in whatever they want without having to face dire consequenses...

Another thing which is quite annoying is that Americans think they're the best at everything, which is a far cry from the truth. When a sports team wins the national championship they are deemed to be the best in the world. In baseball or American football that might be true, even though they don't even take on other teams outside the US. But a few years back the Chicago Fire squad (MLS) was flying back after winning the national championship and the captain announced, "Please welcome the Chicago Fire, World Champions!!!" Needless to say, the players exploded into laughter...

Another thing which people don't realise is that baseball and American football are not popular sports. They are only popular in the US (maybe baseball has a following in Japan), but that's it. Nobody is interested in them, nobody wants to watch them, and compared to soccer audience figures for American football are a complete joke - they are tiny in comparison. As soon as you leave the US people don't even want to know anything about gridiron, they don't know most of the teams or players, and to be honest they don't care. To most people around the world NFL players are about as popular as Mid-west country singers: 1% know about them, 99% don't.

The aim of this post is not to insult anyone as that is never my aim. I have many friends in the United States and even a large part of my family are true Americans. I simply want people to start thinking about the world they live in and the freedoms they enjoy. It's time to put things straight and to stand up for your rights. Why should someone tell you that you can't gamble offshore? Why should they be able to do so? How on Earth can an honest American like Jay Cohen be held hostage in prison by the US gov't even though he is a kind and honest businessman? If you don't realise that the US is no longer a leading country in the quest for freedom then maybe you will be next. Trust me, the US is a long cry from the freedom that many European nations enjoy. I think it's time you look at your own country in an unbiased way and figure out what is going on, because if you continue to believe you live in the "land of the free" then before you know it you won't see the difference between a totalitarian police-state and a free democracy.

[Cons]

I don't mean to sound negative but I often get straight to the point and lay things out as I see them. And just because I'm bringing out the bad bits doesn't mean that all my opinions are strictly negative. In fact there are many areas where I think the US is an example to other nations - there are many things at which the US is quite simply the best. Take college sports for instance - no country in the world has such fantastic facilities and such a well-organised system as America. Although I don't find the NFL interesting I love to watch US college football. There's so much more passion in it than in the professional game. The same applies to basketball - given the choice to watch either the NBA playoffs or the Final Four I would always choose the latter. American stadiums (as a whole) are also probably the best in the world when you look at how many top-class facilities there are. I think the soccer World Cup held in the US in '94 was one of the best ever as a result of this. One of the things I don't like though about sports in the US is that the national anthem is played even at small, local games. Everywhere else in the world you would only play national anthems during international events when playing other countries. Another thing which I don't like is the fact that sports teams are treated as (and even called) franchises. Is this McDonald's or what? And how can you move a team to another city just like that? OK, enough about sports...

It's no secret that the US economy is the biggest in the world and the most competitive. So competitive that you can buy a German car cheaper in the US than in Germany itself (and that's exactly what I did). Customer service and consumer rights (except for credit cards) are also at the highest level. Highways in the US are also probably the best in the world. The land-line phone network is also the best developed, though American cellphone technology the exact opposite. How could you have had such a feeble system in which people could scan your code in a tunnel and then clone your phone? OK, this might now be a thing of the past as I believe you've switched over to digital technology (PCS) but what you're not aware of is that the technology behind it is purely European and that we've had it for like 20 years! Finally you've decided to use our system which was always superior in every way. BTW, do you still have to pay for incomming calls?

Going back to personal freedom Denmark is one of the best examples of slightly overdoing it. During a soccer match between an English and Turkish team fans started rioting in down-town Copenhagen. The riot police came, locked them all up, and then let them go the next morning. English police were furious that the Danes let all these hooligans go free the next day instead of prosecuting them. The Danish chief of police came out and said that Denmark is a free society, that a few people got drunk and started rioting, but that nothing serious happened to anyone and that there's no reason to mess up these people's lives. He said, "let's forget about it and get on with other more important things." English cops couldn't believe their ears.

Speaking of English cops it's worth pointing out that they are the best and most-respected police force in the world. They are truly an example to others. And they don't even carry guns. Yup, no firearms. And people don't have guns either as it's very hard to get a license. I think the US needs to implement gun control and take away everone's "God-given right" to own a firearm. I think it's easier to buy a shotgun in Washington State that it is to buy a keg of beer. I remember buying a keg once and I had to fill out so much info: where is the keg going to be consumed, when, where will it be stored in the meantime, blah, blah, blah. I seriously think if you took a stopwatch and timed two people, one trying to buy a shotgun and the other trying to buy a keg, the first guy would come out sooner. Washington State is also funny in that the gov't has a monopoly on liquer sales. Take a city like Pullman and you have only one store in town (state owned of course) where you can buy a bottle of whiskey. At 6pm it closes down and that's it baby, see you tomorrow.

Because of the wide-spread availability of firearms you have to have metal detectors installed... in schools. Over here the only time you see a metal detector is at an airport. Every city has it's bad parts, but I don't think there's a single city in Europe with a neighbourhood so bad that you can get shot dead in broad daylight, or where firemen have to wear bullet-proof vests. Local authorities should tackle these issues and allocate appropriate funds for these causes. Instead money is spent on helicopters which catch speeding motorists, a very noble cause which is surely going to help everyone out :rolleyes:

Overall I think the US is a great nation and in many aspects sets an example to the rest of the world But as in every country there's always room for improvement, and there is no reason to get upset when those areas are pointed out. I hope that Bin Laden is brought to trial in the International Court of Justice in the Hague and joins Milosevic and his cronies. I also hope that the Taliban's military potential is wiped out once and for all. What angers me though is that Bin Laden is a small-time villain when compared to Putin or Yeltsin but because they are and were Russian heads-of-state then justice doesn't apply to them. They are responsible for barbaric murders on an unprecedented scale during the last decade. But unfortunately nobody in the world (not even the US) has the guts to do anything about it.

[hiptwo]

cons,for someone who take's a lot of cheap shots at this country you should really and i mean REALLY take a look at your own history!! go back two hundred or three hundred years. who was the most powerfull country in the world then? who thought they ruled the sea's. who had thirty,forty,fifty other COUNTRYS UNDER THEIR TRUMBS!! WHO REALLY ----UP THE MIDDLE EAST? why jolly old ENGLAND!! you make a statement in another post "this is clearly not something for NATO but a problem for the US to solve on its own" well if i was the power that be,i would call every service person,close every base, recall every plane,and ship too within one hundred or two hundred miles off our shores, close every bordor and tell england and everyone else to get FUCKED!! we can and we will take care of the problem!! unlike some countrys. nobody's had to pull are ass out of the fire yet!! europe would not last twenty years. if england wants to stop the torrorist bombing in london,maybe they should get the ---- out of ireland. one last thing WORLD DON'T CALL US!! i'am tired of spending my tax's money on you dead beats.

[Cons]

First of all I'm not taking cheap shots at anyone. Is it me that's calling someone dead beats? Try and check your post again. And try to present your arguments in an intelligent way. Just because in your country you don't enjoy the same high level of personal freedom that we have is not a reason to get grouchy. Do you expect me to lie or what? Do I have to say the US is the freeest country in the world just to put a smile on your face? I didn't mean to insult you in any way, just trying to get a normal debate going. That's the problem when talking to a large percentage of people in the US: as soon as you say they're not the best at something they take it as a straight insult. Why is that? I don't think you have to agree with everything I say, but as least express your thoughts reasonably. Fifty other countries under our thumbs? Definitely not even half of that. And where would Australia or India be if not for us? In fact you guys wouldn't be around if not for us. Now look at life today. We don't have metal detectors in schools, we don't have crime-ridden neighbourhoods, our cops don't even have to carry guns! And I'm not trying to be biased here, I'm merely stating the facts which people like you don't want to accept. Since the US asked us for help with the terrorists of course we are obliged to help out in every way we can. We are partners and that means going into battle together, regardless of whether I agree with it or not. I do agree that military action is needed to remove the Talibans from power and bring Bin Laden to justice. Maybe you still think I'm biased, well here's another fact: Britain is guilty of war crimes against Argentina during the Falklands war. They sank an unarmed naval academy vessel with hundreds of young people on board. They knew what they were doing. It was outside the exclusion zone set up by British forces yet some pissed-off captain decided to fire anyway and murdered all of these people. Our Prime Minister later had to lie in front of parliament and say that the vessel was in the exclusion zone which was a blatant lie. You mention that you would recall every serviceman in the world, etc., but you yourself know that would never happen. Your economy relies on ours just like ours relies on yours. Anything happens to us and you're screwed to be honest, just as we would be. We live in a global world and America's interests are all over the world, as are our own. You say nobody ever had to pull your ass out of the fire. Well, let's go back to your independence and safely say that if not for the French chucking everything they had to support you you would have been crushed in no time. It's kind of ironic how this thread is titled "The French can go to hell!

Like I said a large part of my family are Americans and their first reactions are as defensive as yours when we discuss these issues. When I tell them I would prefer to live here or there instead of the US they feel insulted. When I say I would never want to have a US passport because I would then be a prisoner of the IRS and the system in general they feel insulted. I would be unable to even have a private offshore account without disclosing every detail to the IRS. The same applies to gambling profits. And if I didn't disclose all information I'd have to face harsh penalties. Would justice be served by locking me up and having me take it up the ass everyday in third-world-style prisons. Is that what freedom is about? I'm going to end this post with a few statistics published by the UN and Transparency International. You might not life this but the US comes fourth in the world when it comes to standard of life. And when it comes to countries with the least corruption, the US is... 16th. Not surprising considering your previous president took a bribe to let a criminal off the hook.

[tripleplay]

Cons- you really should listen to yourself sometimes. You are so laughable. You have just lambasted the US with such a dung heap of misinformation its unbelievable. It will take a while to get the stink off all of your half-truths and false assertions but hey, you want to debate by insulting you own intelligence, go right ahead. Debate is the war without guns where the pen is mightier than the sword. But remember, he who lives by the poison pen, dies by it. Like a chess game, mr cons, your every move calculated to the nth degree, designed to sap the strength right out of the USA. The pledge of alliegance is brainwashing American children? Wwhat words are offensive to you ? One nation? Under God? Withh liberty and justice for all? Do those words offend you, mr cons? And if so why? They seem pretty representative of western civilization to me. If Im wrong clue me. Arrested for not wearing a seatbelt? A warning perhaps, maybe a small fine, perhaps. No one I know has ever been arrested and never will. The intention of the Law is to positively impact the mortality rates among helpless children flying around in an overturned car or truck, which, since this Law was passed, are being spared death at a greater rate when there is an auto accident. Anything wrong with that mr. cons, or are you for increased death rates? One more I guess. Whether they killing innocent civilians or not depends on whether you believe what the Taliban says on the one hand, and whether you know the meaning of the word "intention". It is not the intention of the British or USA to delibrately target Afganistans' civilians, like the terrorists did in NY. Think of it. 50,000 people worked in the WTC at full capacity. They targeted it for one good reason among others in their warped suicidal minds- maximun civilians killed- and please dont try to argue they didnt. Thats all the time I have for now... Your move, mr cons, perverter of the truth about America.

[Cons]

tripplemoron, what is all this nonsense that you write? Every time I read one of your posts I hope to see some articulate, organized, and intelligent thoughts and each time you disappoint me. Are you sure you're not a Taliban? I'm sure they respond to all sorts of information by labelling it as misinformation and half-truths. It's so convenient when you have no arguments to support your case. You'd fit in right alongside these guys. You don't even write what in particular you disagree about. What is this gibberish about chess and every move being designed to sap the strength out of the USA? What the heck are you even talking about? I think your doctor might be giving you the wrong medication. Did I ever say any of the words are insulting to me? Why would they even be? All I'm saying is that's it's like brainwashing kids at an early age. You're probably the only country outside of the third-world that does this. "With liberty and justice for all?" Do you honestly believe this is true in the real world? You can try to kid everyone else but yourself. I have a little surprise for you, people have been and will continue to be arrested in the US for nothing else but for not wearing a seat belt. There was a Supreme Court vote on whether police should be able to arrest people on such minor violations and it voted 5-4 in favour. There goes a bit more of your "greatest personal freedom in the world" as mr. trippleplay would like to call it. There was even an internet vote about a woman driving her kids home after soccer practice who was arrested and 70% of Americans voted that she shouldn't have been arrested, with the reasoning being: "Although Ms. Atwater posed no threat, she was handcuffed, placed in a squad car and hauled off to jail for a 'crime' that under Texas law only calls for a $50 fine. Citizens shouldn't be hauled off to jail for no reason other than a minor traffic offense." In your last post you wrote: "No one I know has ever been arrested and never will." Sure mr. trippletaliban, considering you're either in Afganistan or Montana I'm sure none of your close associates will ever get arrested for not wearing a seatbelt. Now what is this about intent that you speak about. We all know that the intent was obvously there so you could easily have answered that yourself. These murderers must and will be brought to justice in the Netherlands. But when you drop bombs on people's homes you can't just go, "oops, sorry, it was an honest mistake!" If your air force drops a bomb one kilometer off target then something is wrong here. Today I go to the USA Today web site and what do I see: U.S. bomb hits Red Cross compound. Maybe you should let the British boys do the precision strikes, we don't miss.

[Woodstock]

What the heck does any of this have to do with the French? :D Vive la France. :p

WS

[tripleplay]

Chess, mr cons, is a game about threats to to your opponents existence by gaining positional superiority. In this political "discussion?" your posts have been taking a seemingly leftist anti-american stance, and in chess every move constitutes a threat to the other side. The same thing applys to a debate. Every statement or post in this case is like a move, which requires a counter move that neutralizes the threat. In point of fact we are playing a chess game of words, views, pespectives, ideologies, here. I have played in many tournaments and merely thought you might be familiar with the parralel that every single post you have had on this topic seemed to be manuvering into a position that sought to undermine the position of the US in this matter, and to diminish its position as leader of the free world and a great country to live in. Sorry, I shouldnt have used it. But youve stupidly been depicting me as a lowbrow here, so I must admit its is a bit ironic and somewhat satisfying that you didnt see the analogy. As for the seatbelt law- it was passed because the American people WANTED IT PASSED. You see we have the freedom to sacrifice a minor freedom if we want to, and in this case we did it to save lives, just as we did with the helmet law for motorcyclists. This in turn has trickled down to our children who are now not averse to wearing helmets starting at a young age. The amount of head injuries sustained has been curtailed by the thousands. So that answers that poorly researched charge of yours. As for your other charge, if there were kids in that car and she was probably asked and refused to put the seatbelt on her children or herself, I would arrest her, too, perhaps. But this is such small potatoes. Your really grasping at straws now. Tell you what, anybody who says president Bush's reason for building a coalition to fight terrorism is so the cowards will change from attacking the US and start attacking other places like your town London reflects an intellect that is as short an intelligence capability as the Taliban. That WAS your stated opinion wasnt it, mr cons? Have you ever stopped to smell the stuff youve been shoveling at us? I think it is you that might be in dire need of a change in your regimen of anti-psychotic medication. Look over my posts and you will see that most of my predictions as to what was going to happen at every juncture did while everthing you predicted would happen didnt. Your running a pretty fair second then when it comes to who knows what they are talking about.

[Cons]

First of all let's cut the chess bs mr trippleplay. I knew your analogy like anyone else would so stop tricking yourself. Didn't I tell you you can kid anyone else but yourself? It is not my intention to beat someone here, only to have a civilised debate which with someone like you at times seems only remotely possible. I'm trying to reach a concensus, some points we can agree upon. Tell me what I said about the US that isn't true? Tell me which points you don't disagree with? How many more times do I have to ask you to do this? I am not trying to undermine anyone here. Do you think I'm anti-American? That is not the case. Just because I touch on issues which are hard for you to accept does not make me that. Am I pro-american? No, not that either. Do I ask you if you're pro-English or anti-English? Nope. Personally I don't think you're either. But you seem to have the approach that if you're not with us then you're against us. You say America is the leader of the free world. In what sense? Militarily probably. It's not the freeest country and even you know that. In fact you have a lot in common with the Chinese: you extremely short history shows that you don't hesitate to use live ammunition on students when there are demonstrations. That would never be allowed to happen in a free country like the United Kingdom. Now go ahead, cover it up, name it a "half-truth" You say the US is a great place to live. Fair enough this is your opinion. I don't have to agree with it, and to be honest I don't actually disagree with it. All I'm saying is that there are countries with more freedom around the world, there are a dozen less-corrput nations, and three with an official higher standard of living (Norway being one of them, but then just like 75% of Americans you probably don't know off hand exactly where that is). Personally there's probably a dozen countries on my list that I consider better places to live in than the US. This is not meant to be insulting in any way, though a lot of Americans tend to react in this way when being told something along these lines. About the seat belt thing, of course it's a minor issue. But I still don't think it's a good thing for cops to arrest you and throw you in jail for that. Is that the kind of society you like to live in? Is the threat of getting arrested the only way to get you people to carry out such sensible actions? Secondly, I don't think the *****ity of the American people wanted it passed. But then the decision was not up to them anyway, was it? I still can't get over it, getting arrested for minor traffic infringements, what kind of shit is that? Certainly no other democratic nation in the world gives such totalitarian powers to their police forces.

What is this load of junk about supposedly everything I said not coming true? Are you joking kid? Name one... Are you seriously just trying to piss me off or are you really that thick? What did you say that came true? The obvious? That bombs will be dropped? Give me a break... what a pile of wank. If you want to get a real and fair discussion going then tell me what it is I said that you don't disagree about. We don't have to agree, but at least let's try to clear things up. As you see my post has been calm, composed, no insults being thrown around in every other sentence... In my next post after your reply I'll summarise a few beliefs of mine that you might not agree with. I'll keep them brief, a few sentences each max. I'd like for you to reply in the same way.

I'll leave you with one point which has been irritating me in the last few days, even though I think you'll feel obliged to disagree on pure principle and nothing else. All over the intenet I've seen banners trying to sell me the American flag. To me this is like someone trying to profit from the NY tragedy. Go on, be patriotic, buy a flag. Only $X.99! I have to say this left a bad taste in my mough. These sites simply wanted my credit card number and a transaction to be made.

[Vickey]

Regarding the American Flag thing..I'm pretty disgusted with it too. We wanted a flag so I ordered one online from a large flag company (and might I add it hasn't arrived yet).

So I order this flag and a couple of days later I'm driving down the road and I see a truck on a corner with tons of flags.....and the people selling them were hispanic and barely spoke English! Talk about taking advantage of this situation!

I'm not prejudice in general, however I do have a problem with this because if you are going to be in the U.S. you should speak the language and become a citizen. Period. I'm tired of paying taxes and having tons of foreigners come over here and take advantage of our generous country and never bother to learn our language. If I went overseas to live where there was another language, you bet your butt I'd learn it!

That's my three cents! :cool: