Why America Will Stay On Top

[chud]

In the Weekend Edition of the Wall Street Journal today, there is an article titled Why America Will Stay On Top.
Actually it is an interview with British historian Paul Johnson (author of "Modern Times").

I found the following quote encouraging:
"But in a sense I don't worry about America because America has such huge strengths - particularly its freedom of thought and expression - that it's going to survive as a top nation for the forseeable future."

The rest of the interview is worth reading.

[chud]

Also the headline in the same edition of the WSJ is "Jobless Rate Falls Further".
The article isn't all good news, but still, somewhat encouraging.

[MNeagle]

links please? I've been looking for the first article mentioned & can't locate it.

Thanks.

[dys]

Freedom of thought and expression? That's not the America that I live in.

dys

[chud]

links please? I've been looking for the first article mentioned & can't locate it.

Thanks.


It may not be up on wsj.com yet, since it just came out in the print edition today. Sometimes later in the week they put the stories from the weekend up, so try looking later (or read the print edition).

[chud]

Freedom of thought and expression? That's not the America that I live in.

dys


I agree that things are not as free as they once were (Patriot Act), but we still have a lot of freedoms here that other countries just don't have. Think Burma, China, many countries in the Middle East, etc.

[dys]

A lot of freedoms? I can't agree with that. We have no freedom to own private property, no due process rights, oppressive taxation, GM foods, spying on citizens, parens patriae, very limited economic opportunity, poor standard of living, tyranny and oppression in just about every aspect of our lives, corporatism, crony capitalism, police state, zero privacy, debtor's prisons, unsound fiat currency, corrupt legal system with no accountability, usury, corrupt/broken/inefficient medical system, education system based on indoctrination and lies which also happens to be grossly inefficient, monopolized and hopelessly corrupt mainstream media, flourinated water, class warfare, legal political bribery, rigged elections, infiltrated churches, no leadership, and little hope.

dys





Freedom of thought and expression? That's not the America that I live in.

dys


I agree that things are not as free as they once were (Patriot Act), but we still have a lot of freedoms here that other countries just don't have. Think Burma, China, many countries in the Middle East, etc.

[osoab]

links please? I've been looking for the first article mentioned & can't locate it.

Thanks.


Why America Will Stay on Top (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559604576175881248268272.html?m od=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop)


By BRIAN M. CARNEY

London

In his best-selling history of the 20th century, "Modern Times," British historian Paul Johnson describes "a significant turning-point in American history: the first time the Great Republic, the richest nation on earth, came up against the limits of its financial resources." Until the 1960s, he writes in a chapter titled "America's Suicide Attempt," "public finance was run in all essentials on conventional lines"—that is to say, with budgets more or less in balance outside of exceptional circumstances.

"The big change in principle came under Kennedy," Mr. Johnson writes. "In the autumn of 1962 the Administration committed itself to a new and radical principle of creating budgetary deficits even when there was no economic emergency." Removing this constraint on government spending allowed Kennedy to introduce "a new concept of 'big government': the 'problem-eliminator.' Every area of human misery could be classified as a 'problem'; then the Federal government could be armed to 'eliminate' it."

Twenty-eight years after "Modern Times" first appeared, Mr. Johnson is perhaps the most eminent living British historian, and big government as problem-eliminator is back with a vengeance—along with trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. I visited the 82-year-old Mr. Johnson in his West London home this week to ask him whether America has once again set off down the path to self-destruction. Is he worried about America's future?

........

The rest of it is at the link. Found it at the opinions section.

The article seemed like a puff piece for Johnson. A whole lot of fluff.

Can you take this quote from the piece seriously?


The former governor of Alaska, he says, "is in the good tradition of America, which this awful political correctness business goes against." Plus: "She's got courage. That's very important in politics. You can have all the right ideas and the ability to express them. But if you haven't got guts, if you haven't got courage the way Margaret Thatcher had courage—and [Ronald] Reagan, come to think of it. Your last president had courage too—if you haven't got courage, all the other virtues are no good at all. It's the central virtue."

Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Johnson_%28writer%29) is the wiki page for Johnson.

[Santa]

A lot of freedoms? I can't agree with that. We have no freedom to own private property, no due process rights, oppressive taxation, GM foods, spying on citizens, parens patriae, very limited economic opportunity, poor standard of living, tyranny and oppression in just about every aspect of our lives, corporatism, crony capitalism, police state, zero privacy, debtor's prisons, unsound fiat currency, corrupt legal system with no accountability, usury, corrupt/broken/inefficient medical system, education system based on indoctrination and lies which also happens to be grossly inefficient, monopolized and hopelessly corrupt mainstream media, flourinated water, class warfare, legal political bribery, rigged elections, infiltrated churches, no leadership, and little hope.

dys

Yeah, but we have Starbucks and lotsa porn. What more do you want? :)

[hoarder]

A few days ago I asked someone "Do you know why they call it the Federal Reserve?"

"huh?"

"Because it isn't Federal and it has no reserves"

The Jews tell us America will stay on top because of freedom of thought and expression while THEY are on top and suppressing freedom of thought and expression.

War is peace.

Love is hate.


etc....