I love all the America hate in this topic, bringing up "facts" that aren't even accurate (such as America being the least educated country. That's a laugh.). I don't understand how people from Europe can even laugh at Americans for a very small group of parents who think the Wii Zapper is dangerous for their children, when their OWN respective governments BANNED Manhunt 2 (most European nations, not all). Not to mention the whole Resistance: Fall of Man debacle. I don't recall us talking about how "dumb" Europeans are. I remember us calling the SPECIFIC PEOPLE who were upset "dumb." I don't wish to go on about this racial debate any further, so...

On topic: Most of my thoughts were already expressed earlier in this thread. The NES zapper was introduced some 22 years ago, and though society these days is only getting worse, the Zapper wasn't the cause of it.

ummm wii zapper pwns! and most these people are off topic :P

Agreed, those parents are stupid, but that kind of stupidity is everywhere these days.

As far as the 'dumb americans' thing, We have a very wide variety of people here. We have cultured people, crude people, polite people, rude people, many different cultures, stupid lazy people, people that didn't finish school, as well as brillaint people who help make the world a better place. It's a very diverse country, and that's one of the things that makes America great.

Just think where the world would be without America. We gave the world the car, the steam engine, the train, mass transit, the steamboat, usable electricity, the lightbulb, the telephone, the refrigerator, the skyscraper, the airplane, the camera, the escalator, air conditioner, defibrilator, microwave, the computer (mainframe), the personal computer, the internet, e-mail, the space shuttle (just to name a few), made it to the moon first, and we have pioneered almost every major advance in medical science... we're not all dumb. This happens to be a great country that has made some of the greatest contributions to mankind of any nation in history. We also saved your asses from Germany back in WWII. I'd like the world to give us some freaking credit once and a while instead of all this (jealous?) hate. The world would be a completely different place without this country.

And we gave the world...Timmah!

This country is just as free to be retarded as it is to be brilliant, and thus we have lots of retards. Some geniuses, but still a lot of retards....the main difference is our retards tend to be louder about trivial things than other country's retards. Also the Netherlands is getting an uncut version of manhunt 2.

http://www.negative-reinforcement.com/index.php?id=11

Here's another "American" opinion for you (he's American).

The thing you have to realize about this country too is like a swinging pendulum it swings its political/social climate every so often. For all the Europeans that seem to be frustrated with us sorry but you will likely have to wait till 2015-2020 for it to swing back towards the left. Unfortunately this pendulum swing can't ever seem to stabilize and we end up with extremes anywhere from Prohibition in the 20s to the free love of the 70s .We seem to have hit a peak on social/religious conservatism back in 2000 with Bush's first win but now seem to be starting to swing back the other way. Thats not to say that they are totally to blame for stuff like violent video game legislation the far left is just as bad too on the issue of video game violence. The one saving grace us gamers probably have is that the far right and the far left both hate each other so badly that they can't stop fighting long enough to put actual detrimental legislation into effect on one of the few issues they are in total agreement about. As others said too I blame this one on people that want to shift the blame to others and never want to take responsibility for the things they and their children do, however that is definitely not an unique trait to the US thats a trait of all humanity.

1. Some people will complain about anything that moves. Or don't move.

2. Toy guns are more realistic than Wii Zapper.

3. Blame America. (it's the IN THING to do nowadays)

First, please refrain from stating opinion as fact (Your description of current military engagements is what I'm referring to.  Note, I don't support it either, but that's beside the point.).  Second, if we look back through time, that's really not that terrible.  In WWI, most countries STARTED the war accepting 16+.  Germany ended up at 14+ by the end (that really isn't a fair comparison, though).  Plus, drinking and enlisting aren't really related.  Those involved in the military typically need to be in peak physical condition.  By raising the age, you're effectively hurting your army because those enlisting would probably not be at the peak of physical form.  I agree that the decision is much more important than drinking, but it's entirely unrealistic to expect a government to raise the limit much higher than eighteen.  Heck, I'm simply happy with them not having a draft/compulsory service.

My point is that sure, we all have really lofty ideas about how government should work, but most of them are way too impractical to be put into practice.  Generally, you're going to have to settle for a compromise of some sort.