[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

If I was a law maker this would encourage me to be more present and active in my job.

[alancalverd]

In a civilised country, laws tell you what not to do. So every time I don't kill anyone, or fly into restricted airspace, the law is upheld and whoever wrote it gets a royalty for my good behavior?

In a backward country like the USA, the law is enforced every time a convict is executed. Your suggestion would find favor with the sort of scum that get elected to public office in that banana republic.

[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

In a civilised country, laws tell you what not to do. So every time I don't kill anyone, or fly into restricted airspace, the law is upheld and whoever wrote it gets a royalty for my good behavior?

In a backward country like the USA, the law is enforced every time a convict is executed. Your suggestion would find favor with the sort of scum that get elected to public office in that banana republic.

My question was a joke. A joke that was lost on your stiff upper lip.
Sorry you despise my country so much.

[alancalverd]

Nothing wrong with the country - I appreciate every aspect of the landscape and natural history - but most of the time it seems to be governed by crooks elected by idiots obsessed with the right to kill each other and bankrupt the sick.

[Petrochemicals]

Nothing wrong with the country - I appreciate every aspect of the landscape and natural history - but most of the time it seems to be governed by crooks elected by idiots obsessed with the right to kill each other and bankrupt the sick.

You are hung up on the right to kill people Alan, I am quite worried. Everybody has the right to kill people, just not without retribution, as it always was. Society is the same stone throwing cavePERSONS as it always was. You have to ask why is it cave peoples? Why do people like your good self wish to go and kill others. My guess is that it is capitalism, possession of land, who has got the best cave. If everybody had a cave of equal value would your need for blood be quenched?

[Bored chemist]

Everybody has the right to kill people,

Not on this side of the pond.

Why do people like your good self wish to go and kill others

Notwithstanding some differences in approach, I think I count as "like" Alan.
And, as strange as you might find this, not only do I not wish to go and kill others, I rather doubt Alan does.

So it seems you are mainly being wrong.

Why is that?

[alancalverd]

Why do people like your good self wish to go and kill others.

People like myself have no desire to kill others, which is why we do not need a constitutional right to bear firearms or inflict the death penalty on other civilians. Nor do I particularly fancy anyone else's cave: I  bought an adequate one for money without having to kill the previous owner. Even hermit crabs are better behaved than PC's view of humans - newcomers may compete over rights of possession of an empty shell, but they wait for the previous owner to die or leave before barging in.

[Petrochemicals]

Nor do I particularly fancy anyone else's cave: I  bought an adequate one for money without having to kill the previous owner.

Typical over 50s attitude. In today's market even around honourable Cambridge to get a cave is probably murder.

[alancalverd]

No sign of dead bodies in the street.

[Petrochemicals]

No sign of dead bodies in the street.

That's the highly efficient Cambridge refuse disposal operatives for you.

[alancalverd]

highly efficient Cambridge refuse disposal operatives

You jest, surely.

[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

Nothing wrong with the country - I appreciate every aspect of the landscape and natural history - but most of the time it seems to be governed by crooks elected by idiots obsessed with the right to kill each other and bankrupt the sick.

Perhaps the British Empire should rise again and bring their civility, stipulations and... uh never mind.

[alancalverd]

Or they could learn about civilised behavior from Canada, Norway, Belgium....pretty well anywhere with a constitutional monarch, sensible gun laws, and a reasonable level of socialised medicine.

[Petrochemicals]

Nothing wrong with the country - I appreciate every aspect of the landscape and natural history - but most of the time it seems to be governed by crooks elected by idiots obsessed with the right to kill each other and bankrupt the sick.

Perhaps the British Empire should rise again and bring their civility, stipulations and... uh never mind.

No no,we now have the american empire and we cannot contend.

[alancalverd]

Folk seem content to enjoy some American exports like hamburgers and Netflix, but the USA as a political entity has little influence over the laws and rules of others.

The old adage "trade follows the flag"  was actually incorrect in terms of the British Empire, which expanded as required to protect the interests of the East India Company, the Hudson Bay Company, Tate Sugar, etc with military force. There is little evidence of the US military being deployed to advance the interests of any trading  organisation (apart from Halliburton and Bechtel in Iraq).

[Petrochemicals]

USA conquests are numerous, pretty much all of south america, much of the middle east, South East Asia and numerous others. If the us would take over central america in a similar fashion to Puerto Rico the better off everyone would be.

[alancalverd]

You don't see the stars and stripes on many South American flags, nor is the official language English, nor does any other nation apart from Puerto Rico recognise the President of the USA as its head of state..

[Petrochemicals]

You don't see the stars and stripes on many South American flags, nor is the official language English, nor does any other nation apart from Puerto Rico recognise the President of the USA as its head of state..

our own official language is being colored by Americanish, pronunciations, spelling, inflections and so is the rest of the world.

[alancalverd]

Most of the English language is derived from Celtic, Saxon and French words with various bits  acquired particularly from India in later centuries. There is very little Navajo or Inuit influence outside of North America. I'm in favor of US spelling but few people confuse me with my transatlantic colleagues on the phone. The rising inflection (which seems to have died out somewhat among the young) is I believe of Australian origin.

Just to deviate (as usual) for a moment. I was appalled and impressed in equal measure by a couple of GPS voice synthesisers. Driving in France with a British satnav, the pronunciation of street names sounded like a British politician imitating a British politician and would have scored zero in an oral exam (though it caused great hilarity in the car), but the US  satnav I used in California switched smoothly between English and Spanish pronunciation  as we progressed. I can't believe that anyone sat in a studio and voiced the name of every street in the USA, so how did they do it?

[Petrochemicals]

. The rising inflection (which seems to have died out somewhat among the young) is I believe of Australian origin.

Can't believe that, the population of the states is far too big.