Originally Posted by baxter

I find these kinds of statements utterly boring. Please find a better argument. The Marshall Plan doesn't grant you a carte blanche to do whatever you want. And you should learn from your elders, we have seen and lived two devastating wars on our soil, and therefore know what war really is and what it means.

I never said the Marshall Plan grants us carte blanche--but it would be nice to see you7 damned deadbeats, who are now wealthy enough to pay for and control every aspect of your citizen's lives from birth to death, to repay some of the billions we spent saving your asses from problems you created yourselves (such as spawning Adolph Hitler and National Socialism from the Treaty of Versailles.) As for your laughable suggestion we should "learn from our elders." (pretty senile ones, it seems to me) how many governments have many of the European Nations have since 1789? Our Constitution makes our government one of the older ones in terms of continuance and stability. Maybe some Euros should learn from their elders, and in terms of governmental institutions, that's the USA.

(By the way, writerman, your friend sounds like a racist thug.)

You don't even know the man. He's a fine person, and a very devout Christian (and the fact that Europe's cathedrals are mostly empty on Sundays makes him shake his head in disgust) and one who usually eschews violence, but when there's a chance a lady is going to be harmed, that's another matter. And by the standards of any reasonable person that certainly doesn't excuse the punks and the lack of professionalism and bias of the worthless Madrid Police. And by the way, you sound like you're excusing the punks and applaud the police in their attempt to harrass a man only exercising his right of self defense.

Yes. Even though the U.S gives more in terms of US$, in terms of GNI (which is the thing to look at), the US gives a very small amount compared to European nations.