Topic: Your veiws on the future

[Vaelyn]

  Because?....

[Colonel Tangerine]

Listen to Donald Rumsfeld for five minutes. If you can do it without shivering, you have a stouter heart than I

[Spiritbw]

Listen to Donald Rumsfeld for five minutes. If you can do it without shivering, you have a stouter heart than I

Ditto.

Some of the policies the US have had....well one wonders.  Specially since bush came to power.  At first he seemed determined to piss SOMEONE off, then he's invading other countries on grounds that are shaky at best.  At first the world is tolerant, then more start to question the reasoning....

There has been tightening of liberties and some of the things you hear being supported in the news.  Citizens that have suspected ties, or at least known orgin or religion, are being detained and in a few cases it seemed to thier families that they just disappeared.  Some are being detained at a base with no intent to bring to court of law it seems or under the POW protocols.........

Then we have this awfully long border and a rather small army that due to goverment policy is armed with outdated and/or poor equipment.....

I think I'm starting to understand how the Polish felt in 1938.

[Vaelyn]

   I, too, am uneasy about some of the policies being carried out as far as the Guantanamo detainees are concerned, but the very fact that there IS so much concern about their status shows that we are a FAR cry from being a police state.  Far more intrusive policies have been carried out in our history, and the histories of just about every nation.   Rest assured, whenever any branch of government begins to get out of hand the others will soon rein it back in.  That's our system of checks and balances at work. 

  However, the Guantanamo detainee situation is peanuts compared to the assault on the Constitution which was carried out by the Democrats, with Bush as an accomplice.  That horrid campaign finance reform bill totally flouts the First Amendment and has far more serious ramifications than the abuses that may come of the USAPATRIOT Act.

[Spiritbw]

Very true Vaelyn.  Still one will worry about things when it starts to happen.  You always wonder if this time it's going to be carried to far to be stopped.

[Devern, The Unsung Hero]

hmm my predictions.  Well being Canadian I have to say some good stuff here.   
In the next 20 years or so canada will control 40% of the world's wealth in diamonds, established fact.  opefully will work towards cheaper refining methods to get the oil from the tar sands which has more oil than the middle east, but since it costs $13 a barrel to produce as opposed to like $2 in the middle east, it's somewhat impractical.  So as far as wealth Canada will be on the upward trend while hopefully managing to keep a peaceful relationship with the rest of the world.
   Well cant say much about the Us that hasn't already been said.  So my predictions are pretty much the same, except Canada could come to the world stage soon.

[Vaelyn]

  That would be a very good thing, IMO.  Go Canada!   

[Colonel Tangerine]

News Predictions:

Failure of EU. I don't live there, so I guess I'm a bit detached from it all, but I just can't see it working.

War with China. It will come, mark my word. Maybe not for 50 years, but it will come. And the West is going to be hard pressed to stop them. It will be the second truelly global war, and might cause the death of us all.

[Rasmus]

News Predictions:

Failure of EU. I don't live there, so I guess I'm a bit detached from it all, but I just can't see it working.

   What makes you think so?
   It has been around in one form or another since the end of the forties, and it is still here. The current form is getting more things done than the previous ones. As soon as the pound goes and a mutual defence-strategy is agreed upon... ouch.
   Yes, the consitution failed. So do all first drafts.

[miclantecuthli]

The expansion can be dangerous: Poland, the baltic states, ... They're all poor compared to the countries in the EU. It's a big risk and will cause economical problems. I think that the EU will have the same problems as Germany after the reunion. The EU will survive the first expansion, but i don't like the idea of an EU with Roumania. I don't think that they are ready to join us in 2008. Their culture is also very different, more like the russian culture.

[spleenman]

News Predictions:

Failure of EU. I don't live there, so I guess I'm a bit detached from it all, but I just can't see it working.

   What makes you think so?
   It has been around in one form or another since the end of the forties, and it is still here. The current form is getting more things done than the previous ones. As soon as the pound goes and a mutual defence-strategy is agreed upon... ouch.
  

Thousands???  Try MILLIONS!  The facts being what they are Scar, Stalin was probably responsible for the deaths of more of his own people during WW2 than anyone.  I'm not saying the Germans and Japanese were saints by any means, but to deny the obvious cruelty of Stalin's regime is folly. 

American propoganda?  Bah.  Stalin did it to himself.

But they were criminals of various sorts, the Jews, gypsies, 7th day adventists, jehovahs witnesses, Communists, gays, handicapped and anyone else who opposed the regime  were killed just because.

And this would differ from the Nazis how exactly??  Did they not kill and repress the same groups of people?

Oh Scars, you can always be counted on for a laugh ...

[Scars]

I don't think the EU will fail, I can see it breaking up though as the poorer countries realise that all their membership card insures is that they get f*cked over collectively by the big European powers.