This is cool: "A subjective comparison of Germany and the United States"

[howard112211]

A German former math student (now teacher) who moved to the US, thoroughly compares both countries. Some points he makes are extremely interesting.

http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/us-d.html

I'm half-way through it. One of my favorite parts is where he debunks the idea that there is freedom of speech in the US. Basically, despite the First Ammendment there are a tremendous amount of ways in which free speech or expression can get one in trouble, legal and otherwise, in the US. More so than in other places that perhaps have stronger written laws with regards to speech. "In the US you can get fired for a bumper sticker that is on your private car."

[northoftheborder]

1. Looks interesting, will read later.

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. Logical flaw.

His experience with Germany ends in 1992. They've changed at least as much as we have since then.

I could make an equally negative comparison between the US I grew up with vs the one we have now.

[Nye Bevan]

3. If you deny the Holocaust in the US, people think you're an idiot.

If you deny the Holocaust in Germany, you go to prison.

[cali]

4. ack. so full of factual errors it's hard to know where to begin.

-"...a candidate needs more than 50% of the votes in order to win." false. tell it to Governor LePage.


-"By contrast, Congress persons in the US are much more independent: they raise campaign money on their own (or use their own money) and the party cannot even decide who will be their candidate in a particular race: this is decided in so-called primaries, races between the various candidates where every voter who declares themselves a supporter of the party gets to vote. Once in Congress, the legislators can vote their conscience on virtually every question." False. Uh, no. Congress Critters cannot vote their conscience on virtually any question. And they usually don't.

-"It is often believed that the position of President in the US is an extremely powerful one; this is wrong. Essentially all he can do is govern by changing administrative rules and veto or sign laws written by Congress, where the majority is often hostile to the president. Presidential vetoes can even be overridden by a 2/3-supermajority in both houses. By contrast, the Chancellor in Germany is elected by the parliament, the Bundestag, which means that a majority is behind him and most every law he wants to enact will pass, because of the above mentioned party discipline. Most laws, the ones not affecting the German states, do not have to be approved by the second chamber, the Bundesrat. (The precise rules about which laws have to be approved by the Bundesrat are quite obscure, and nobody seems to know them.)". The prez does indeed have a lot and it's naive to think he has nothing to do with legislation- or that it's all about changing administrative rules. gad.

-"On a whim, some states will introduce gay marriage and others will put a prohibition against it into the state constitution. Things appear to move much slower in Germany." Yeah, Vermont introduced MARRIAGE EQALITY" on a whim. Ten Years after having instituted civil unions. MA introduced it on a whim- after the MA SC ordered it to- some whim.

No, not all judges or prosecutors are elected- not by a long shot.l

I could go on and on, but one thing is clear, this guy may have lived here for nearly 20 years, but his research skills and knowledge are pretty lame.