BRITAIN has dropped to 25th place on a list of the best places in the world to live - behind countries like the Czech Republic and Lithuania.
While France tops the poll for the fifth year in row, the UK is associated with a dismal climate, soaring crime rate and cost of living, congested roads and equally over-crowded cities.
Even former Communist countries where unemployment is still rife are considered better places to settle down in.
The Czech Republic and Lithuania were not even accepted into the European Union until 2004.
Since then thousands of people from both countries have flooded into the UK, but most are drawn by the chance to make money in a liberal, entrepreneurial economy, rather than Britain's quality of life.
Many eastern Europeans make as much money as they can in the UK before returning home at the earliest opportunity. The Quality of Life Index, published by International Living magazine for the 30th year in a row, puts Britain down five places from 20th in 2009.
In all, 200 countries are surveyed across nine categories, including cost of living, culture and leisure, environment, safety, culture and weather. Australia is placed second after France, with Switzerland in third.
Residents across the Channel enjoy everything from Riviera beaches and Alpine ski resorts to arguably the best health service in the world, but it is the country's 'bon vivant' lifestyle which sets it apart. While British people are nowadays renowed for their TV dinners and binge drinking, the French savour the finer things in life day-in, day-out.
This includes freshly baked bread twice a day, two hour lunch breaks in which to enjoy cheap cordon bleu restaurants, and some of the best wine in the world. Working hours are far shorter than those experienced by stressed-out British people, who have far less holiday entitlement too.
The French, in contrast, take most of August off, view Sunday leisure as sacrosanct, and have far more public holidays, as well as less crime and dirt. Jackie Flynn, publisher of International Living magazine said: "In France, life is savoured. I don't think anyone will argue that France is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, where there is so much pride in all the small details.
"The French love little window boxes filled with flowers, tidy gardens, pretty sidewalk cafes, and clean streets. Cities are well tended and with little crime."
Variety is also seen as a major factor in France's attractiveness, with the survey noting: "Romantic Paris offers the best of everything, but services don't fall away in Alsace's wine villages, in wild and lovely Corsica, in lavender-scented Provence or in the Languedoc of the troubadors, bathed in Mediterranean sunlight."
The US dropped from third to seventh place this because of last year's economic collapse. A magazine spokesman said: "Sustaining the American Dream has escalated out of the reach of many." While countries like France, Italy and Australia are considered to have the best climates, Britain does not top a single category.
Germany, which comes fourth in the overall survey, is widely praised for its efficiency and leisure facilities.
The survey notes: "In Germany, everything works and works well. Its houses are built to last, and their legendary autobahns are still mostly without speed limits.
"If you enjoy sports, even small towns have numerous facilities. Some odd ones too. The Harz Mountains now has a specialist hiking trail for nudists. From spas to parks to North Sea beaches, Germany is arguably the world's most naturist-friendly country."
PRAGUEOutgoing Prague archbishop and head of Czech Catholics Miloslav Vlk warned of a looming "islamization" of Europe. "Europe has denied its Christian roots from which it has risen and which could give it the strength to fend off the danger that it will be conquered by Muslims -- which is actually happening gradually," Vlk said.
"If Europe doesn't change its relation to its own roots, it will be islamized," he said.
so get up and go to church. But choose your church wisely. Many of the traditional churches have been taken over by activists. How do you know? Look at their websites before you attend. If they emphasize social justice, diversity, or other such liberal pc nonsense instead of Jesus Christ, keep searching.
It won't kill you or your children to sit and listen to the message of Jesus Christ. It might even save you :-)
#8
Versus WMF > "WORLD POLITICAL COMMENTARY" US MEDIA: CHINA'S "THIRD ISLAND CHAIN" STRATEGY TO PROJECT PLA MILITARY POWER AGZ HAWAII, US PACIFIC-WEST COAST BASES.
* SAME > SOUTH KOREA: DPRK TANK EXERCISE EQUATES DESTRUCTION OF US-SK BUSAN. ETC. SOUTHERN FALLBACK BASES AS FINAL "TRUE LIBERATION OF THE KOREAS".
Long, long piece at Vanity Fair on the life of a sniper, using one American sniper as a focus. Great read, worth it to get into the head of a sniper, which this fellow lets you do. Only a few gratuitous anti-miliary remarks from the author.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Read the Vanity Fair article. It speaks enough of the truth. The man has to be accurately defined. I believe the article to be well written. One can appreciate the emotions of the writer in the presence of an authentic man who makes his living and his purpose in life from shooting other men.
I find it comforting personally to see God in the intimate life of such an individual. He is right about some people being sheep dogs for the rest of mankind. And SLA Marshall WAS right about 6 men out of 100 doing 85% of the kills in combat.
It IS the truth that the vast majority of men can not bring themselves to kill even when trained to do so. I think its genetic. I think its built into most men at an almost DNA level, they CANT kill. Six in a 100, can. I find that a pledge to human decency.
You dont know if you are one of the six, and you cant be identified even by yourself. You only find out you are one of them when you actually do a kill. And once you are in you can never come back out again.
Its a Revelation. And he's right about you cant be identified by outward appearance. They look like everybody else. Ordinary. Just men.
Six men in a hundred do 85% of the kills. To find one you look with men... who are. That's how you identify and recruit them. You send one who is... to find one. You see outwardly by knowing inwardly.
You are the touchstone , like finds like.
Just about a year ago, many people here and abroad had very high hopes for our new president and for us. He was going to take on our economic woes, improve our international reputation (as he defined it), and fight a smarter and better war on terrorism. How has the year unfolded?
Using Gallup numbers, President Obama began his administration with a 69 percent approval rating. Today he's at 49 percent -- a 20-point drop. Last January unemployment was at 7.2 percent; today it's at 10 percent. President Obama came to office criticizing the public debt, and continues to speak of the debt he inherited, but let's get it right: According to the Heritage Foundation's Brian Riedl, "President Bush presided over a $2.5 trillion increase in the public debt through 2008. Setting aside 2009 (for which Bush and Obama share responsibility), President Obama's budget would add $4.9 trillion in public debt from the beginning of this year through 2016." In addition, there is now talk of a second stimulus, and a nearly trillion-dollar health-care plan is in the works.
On the international front, Iran is more threatening and dangerous than ever. President Obama campaigned on a new kind of policy toward Iran, but the only thing new is that the Iranian government has become more aggressive, more brutal, and more contemptuous toward our desire to curb its nuclear ambitions. North Korea has test-fired banned missiles and broken off accords. Russia is as aggressive as ever. We have spurned the Dalai Lama. We have upset Eastern European allies from Poland to the Czech Republic. Israel is more nervous than ever -- both about its existence and about the pressure the U.S. is putting on it. Sudan has been appeased further than it was by either of the last two administrations but is no less of a threat to Darfur, where things are getting worse. And in Latin America, the president has received praise from Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. Meanwhile, he's twice gone to Copenhagen and come back empty-handed: once to bring the Olympics to Chicago, once to formulate a climate policy. In neither visit did he get what he set out for.
On Afghanistan, he has finally come out with a policy and committed to sending more troops. His administration's spokesmen are unclear on what the exit or ramp-down procedures and timelines are, but for now, we can praise the ramp-up. But on the terrorism and war issue more generally, we have seen a backslide. Despite ringing statements that we will close Guantanamo, stop enhanced interrogation, and move detained terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed into our civil-justice system with a public trial, thus bestowing constitutional rights on those terrorists, an interesting statistic came out last week: More terrorist acts and attempts took place in the United States in 2009 than in any year since 2001. According to the Rand Corporation, there have been 33 terrorism-related events on these shores since 9/11, and 13 of them occurred in 2009.
Meanwhile, President Obama seems to want to take the focus off this threat by changing the language of what we are in -- which is a war. He tries to narrow and crib the definition as much as possible: a) by not talking about any of it very much and b) when talking about it, by restricting the discussion to al-Qaeda. He has a genus problem, but really only mentions the species; you never hear him talk about Islam or Islamic terrorism, and he hardly ever uses the word "war."
Barack Obama is president. He asked to be. The complaining, the blaming, and the distracting are not presidential. We need a president who sees the world as it is and rises to the challenges.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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According to the Mann-Hansen Group, once the poll numbers are adjusted, there is a 130% consensus that all aspects of MMGW are proven and cannot be disproven.
If there were doubt that much of the media is hostile to traditional faith, especially traditional Christianity, that doubt has been drowned in the wake of a vicious verbal assault on Fox News analyst Brit Hume. Histrionic fulminations against Mr. Hume's inoffensive expression of faith expose an ugly strain of anti-religious bigotry that is spreading inside this country's liberal establishment.
Mr. Hume's sin against secular culture came Sunday when he offered, in humble and helpful tones, advice to golfer Tiger Woods to "turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world." The advice might have sounded a little awkward in the setting of a news-talk roundtable. But even in the context of suggesting that Mr. Woods' apparent Buddhism doesn't offer the same "kind of forgiveness and redemption" as Christianity, the newsman's remarks were, at worst, harmless. Yet the reaction of critics gives the impression that Mr. Hume did something really awful like use the "N" word, or - as Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus did - push a government promotion for a girlfriend.
Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales took a pause from writing love letters to President Obama to aim nasty public hate mail at Mr. Hume, who is renowned as one of the rare true gentlemen in the nation's capital. "Brit Hume was certainly full of something," Mr. Shales ranted, adding that the Fox broadcast legend is "sinking into his own mouth-made mire," and that "darts of derision should be aimed at Hume" for "one of the most ridiculous [remarks] of the year." He instructed Mr. Hume to "first off, apologize," with a snide admonishment that "Hume ought to know that what people are saying right now is a whole lot worse than that he's fading."
On MSNBC, the preternaturally truculent Keith Olbermann said Mr. Hume should "keep religious advocacy out of public life since, you know, the worst examples of that are jihadists, not to mention, you know, guys who don't know their own religions or somebody else's religion like Brit Hume." His guest, homosexual activist Dan Savage, chimed in that, "American Christianity has been hijacked by the lunatics, by the Pat Robertsons ... and by people like Brit Hume, and it's an insult to Christianity, it's an insult to Christians." Also on MSNBC, news host David Shuster suggested that Mr. Hume somehow had "denigate* Christianity" by mentioning his faith on the air.
This is par for the course for a media in which Washington Post book reviewers suggest that the faith messages at the heart of the popular "Narnia" books amount to a "narrow Christian box," where HBO's Bill Maher calls the Catholic Church "the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia," where the Nation's Katha Pollitt accuses the religious right of showing "tolerance of wife-battering," and where a major news magazine marvels at the supposedly "surprising unsecularity" of the American public.
Maybe these media mavens should take Mr. Hume's advice. Their own hatefulness puts them in obvious need of the "forgiveness and redemption" Mr. Hume kindly recommended. A little charity wouldn't hurt, either.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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As a Buddhist, I see it as harmless and even showing compassion on Brit's part.
I also believe those who are Christian shouldn't be ashamed to express their religion because it's who they are and they can do good things with faith.
Separation of church and state has been overblown and weakened the character of the country.
#2
Lets keep Christianity out of all the Media and out of public life. Let's muzzle all the Christians and make them shut up.
To quote the tall skinny lady with the sharp tongue( Anne Coulter )
"Christianity the best deal in the universe. (I know it seems strange that a self-described atheist and radical sex advice columnist with a preference for boys and butts like Savage to miss the central point of Christianity, but there it is.)
God sent his only son to get the crap beaten out of him, die like a butchered pig for our sins and rise from the dead. If you believe that, you're in. Your sins are washed away from you -- sins even worse than adultery! -- because of the cross.
"He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:14.
Surely you remember the cross, Liberals -- the symbol banned by ACLU lawsuits from public property throughout the land?
"Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9.
If you do that, every rotten, sinful thing you've ever done is gone from you. You're every bit as much a Christian as the Pope or Billy Graham. Jimmy Swaggart may be an a77hole, but he is a Christian a77hole.
No fine print, no "your mileage may vary," no blackout dates. God ought to do a TV spot: "I'm God Almighty, and if you can find a better deal than the one I'm offering, take it."
In a boiling rage, liberals constantly accuse Christians of being "judgmental." No, we're RELIEVED !!
If you believe Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead, you have no choice but to give your life entirely over to Him. No more sexual promiscuity, no lying, no cheating, no stealing, no killing inconvenient old people or unborn babies -- no doing what all the other kids do.
And no more caring what the world thinks of you -- because, as Jesus warned in a prophecy constantly fulfilled by Liberals: The world WILL hate you.
With Christianity, your sins are forgiven, the slate is wiped clean and your eternal life is guaranteed through nothing you did yourself, even though you DONT deserve it. It's the best deal in the universe.
#3
Mr. Hume's inoffensive expression of faith expose an ugly strain of anti-religious bigotry that is spreading inside this country's liberal establishment.
#6
The big problem with what Brit Hume and others are saying, IMHO, is that Tiger Woods apparently has a belief system already and it already strongly preaches against all of those chicken#### things he did.
Christianity isn't going to do him much good if all he does is goes from ignoring the tenets of his old faith and move on to ignoring the tenets of a new one.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bill Bennett
