It is, but our salaries reflect this too. You could live as a king in Poland on a Danish salary. Conversely, you could live as a homeless person in Denmark on a Polish salary. Or you could live normally in either country on the local salary.

On the other hand, another founding principle was the separation of church and state, but that doesn't seem to be going very well. And of course the notion that all men are created equal, written by a bunch of rich white slave owners ;-)

Well... It depends, I guess. Maybe they could actually do something about getting semi automatics out of the hands of criminals? That'd be an excellent start.
Come the zombie apocalypse, we're doomed. There's a reason why bolt action rifles aren't in Left 4 Dead.
The unspoken law of politics is that a bigger idiot replaces the previous idiot.

Well church and state seperation is not really the founding principle people say it is. The seperation thing comes from a letter written by Jefferson and not the Constitution itself, which just says freedom OF religion, meaning you can practice what you like.
The rich White slave owners thing is spot-on though. Of course they justified that by considering others to not be people, which is sad.
In any case full freedom of speech is a core part of our country and something I very much believe in personally.

first of all i dont think any of these "im moving" threads in various forums around the internet will ever lead to anyone actually moving.
2nd. the grass is always greener on the other side methinks. i know so many people who want to move to australia/new zealand because they think it would be awesome. i guess there some australians who wanna move somewhere else because they think it'd be awesome.
3rd. if ur being realistic u wouldnt wanna move to the US or EUrope because as far as im aware of we have higher unemployment than you down under. and that will make it even harder for "outsiders" to get a job.
so lets just lean back, wherever we are, and rejoice that we AT LEAST have the luxury to type on this here forum. that counts for something right?
p.s. aaahhh how i wish i was in australia right now, enjoying the sun, going hiking in the outback, chilling on the beautiful beaches...

Australia's a great place to live, wouldn't wanna live anywhere else thats for sure...
.... but stay away from the beatiful looking deserted beach's, they are deserted because the local wild life there will kill you. Aka, box jelly fish in the water or a taipan on the hot sand :P

lol. i'll keep that in mind if i'm ever lucky enough to travel there one day

It's called venting. The true purpose of the internet. Along with porn. =)
Did you miss the original post? Censoring the internet thing.. Kind of a big deal. China as an example. So yes, we can bitch about it online, the question is, "for how long?"
And, if you ever do travel down under. Avoid ALL wild life, including insects. Most of it will kill you. Slight exaggeration, but NOT as much of an exaggeration as anyone would like it to be. ;)

Exactly!
Sorry for the cynicism. No country is perfect. I'm pretty sure we can all think of a number of things our leaders have done in the last month , or of the cultural ironies and backwardness of our own populations, that made us go "What were they thinking?"
Censorship is a big thing. The Internet is still new, and people are still grappling with the aspects of regulating it properly (if it should be regulated at all) and every country has approached it differently.
The US is nice. If you move to a more populated area, you'll find some very diverse communities where I'm sure you'd find people of similar interests (i.e. a social life). If you happen to move to a sparely populated area, you find very warm friendly communities! just be prepared for a little bit of culture shock.
1. Yes we all speak English
2. Internet varies on your region and what companies provide to it. I get DSL through my phone company for $15. I could get cable for a similar price, but I hate my Cable company. Metro areas have the fastest Internet, of course.
3. U.S, - Melting pot. If whatever fits your type exists, you're sure to find it here.
4. Also our Flora and Fauna for the most part is non-lethal!

nah i did not miss the original post. this discussion also comes up in europe often times. im kind of torn between the arguments. if we're being realistic all that is being proposed is to block child porn sites as far as Europe is concerned. the counter argument of course is the theory that this will lead to further censorship that may cause conflict with freedom of speech. i'm generally against censorship, but i'm also against what is currently happening where every third 13 year old kid has seen the girls with the cup, if you get my drift.
reminds me of a quote from my prof who said "the best way to protect freedom of speech, is not to abuse it". true on many levels.

The catch is, the violation of a chld is as likely, if not more likely, to happen out on the street. Just recently we had a Spaniard arrested for kissing three little kids on the lips.. In a McDonalds...That wasn't empty.
Here's the other catch.. Being realistic is fine. Not knowing exactly what will be filtered, is not fine. The government has made no effort to shine any light on this. And considering that the majority of people are against this policy, the fact that it seems to still be going ahead should ring alarm bells.
I agree, children need protecting. Ultimately, that's the job of a parent, not the government. And the catchphrase, "think of the children" is getting old. Video game classification as an example. It's inconsistent, and without an 18+ rating, a lot of games are being classified, unmodified, as 15+.
Where's the logic in that?
Left 4 Dead 1 was classified 15+ without modification, but the sequal was refused classification until it was sanitisied to an unacceptable point. Why one, and not the other?
Here's something I found funny... The classification board refers to the enemies in L4D as, more or less, "zombies". In the case of L4D2, they are referred to as "infected humans". Which they had a problem with. But, you know, blowing the limbs off Japanese and German troops in World at War is fine. What? They weren't human?
Giving up freedoms, and expecting those in power to protect you, is as good as wearing a ten foot bullseye.
The "theory" that it will lead further, isn't a theory. Again, China as an example. Speaking or writing about events within your own country equates to "divulging state secrets"?
Those 13 year olds you mentioned? Their parents need a severe kick in the reproductive organs so they can't have any more offspring. Install some parental control software. Or, this one is so far fetched it's laughable, monitor your children.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
- Benjamin Franklin

i dont think anything we're talking about here, blocking child porn, or video game ratings, would be categorized as ESSENTIAL liberty by mr. franklin.
as stated, i generally agree with you, censorship is bad (germany's videogame laws make me have a stomach ulcer). you are right, what is being censored/blocked should be clearly spelled out and explicitly limited (such as child porn, animal cruelty etc).
but as stated, i do think the internet is pretty much out of control. the question is how much control should be exercised over it. as little as possible i think. but again, i dont know how good parental control software is these days, but fact is, a lot of good parents dont have the time or the knowhow to keep their children from seeing stuff that shouldnt be seen.

I'm sure Franklin would have been outraged by the carelessly shoddy cuts to left 4 dead 2. After all wasn't it Franklin himself who once said "If I set something on fire I expect to see that shit burn, its not like it's cruel they're fucking ZOMBIES for fucks sake!"

Which was my point, really. When your government censors things and won't tell you what it is they're censoring, that's an essential liberty out the window. However, I couldn't very well alter the quote.

Wow, powerful, moving quote.
it's a shame that the vision of the founders of what was a glorious advancement of western civilization (The USA) has been absolutely shat on repeatedly by the bloated, overblown modern empire known as McUSA.

I do too, though I am not in love with our "leader", and it seems many Aussies aren't happy with theres either.