Hell no, we don’t want either. You yankees come with guns and stuff, we don’t like that.
I’m not so sure he’d like it much up here.
We’d check 'em at the border. Honest. 
In all seriousness, I know a gal who ditched the USA after 9/11, citing the Indecision 2000 Election Fiasco and the “pending conservative response to the 9/11 attacks.”
She moved to England w/ her Brit Boyfriend (who didn’t have much to say on the matter, one way or another).
Personally, I think she was just gassing about her reasons, and really only moved because of boyfriend. But I didn’t know her all that well, and couldn’t say for certain.
Nothing. Especially since the average IQ in the US would go up as well. 
Because Janeane Garofalo is such a noted genius. I enjoyed her Nobel Prize acceptance speeches, though I thought the speech for her Chemistry prize was better than the one for her Physics prize.
All Hollywood actors have huge brains. Famous = smart!
After he and 2,499,999 other like minded voters participate in an election or two, I think he’ll like it just fine. 
You fail to realize how Bush is ringing up quite a price tag which the USA will be paying back for generations to come. Bush has spent money that does not belong to him nor this Congress. It is unbelievable that Americans have become so complacent, thy do not recognize how Bush has a blank check to spend this nation’s money and future monies to come on a low-down embarrassment of a failed war that has accomplished absolutely nothing.
I cannot even say it has pleased the Bush venedetta for it hasn’t even done that. You herad of the runaway bride? We have a runaway President who will not own-up to the fact that he’s dragged the American people into an endless situation.
By the way, does anyone here remember some guy named, uh what was that name? Oh, yeah! Bin Laden? Yeah, that’s the ticket. We’ve got him shakin’ in his boots, now boys! I wonder if Bush and his crones can even find Afghanistan on a globe…
Maybe next election, you’ll listen before we’re the 50 States of Debts! SOmeone, please send Bush home to play cowboy on his ranch… - Jinx
OK. Here’s a quiz - no cheating!
Of the following quotes, who was serious, and who was sarcastic:
Are any of those serious?
The second two sound serious. The second quote is Pierre Salinger, who we know was serious. The first is Robert Altman and the statement did not sound serious to me. I don’t know who the third quote is from but it sounds like he meant it.
By the way, here’s a Snopes article which debunks the claims about several of the people on your list.
The Alec Baldwin story was debunked long ago. He was never quoted anywhere as saying he would leave the country. A German magazine claims that Kim Basinger said he would leave the country but both Baldwin and Basinger deny she ever said that. In the absence of any direct quote from Baldwin and his consistent denials, I don’t think he can be held out as a valid example.
What you’re left with is Eddie Vedder and Robert Altman. I didn’t get any sense at all that Vedder was being serious. Altman, I’ll give you, was less obviously facetious, but , at best, that gives you ONE Hollywood celebrity who promised to leave but didn’t. That’s hardly a trend.
Oh…I guess I forgot about the third person quoted in your examples. Who was it? Did they leave?
The irony in that post literally drips off the text.
Sure, but at least in China, everyone knows the government is a bunch of tyrannical backstabbing eavesdropping bastiches who will lock you up for years without any rights if you look at them cross-eyed.
I suspect that then ones who were likely to leave were the one who were already at the border, so to speak: they already had external ties, such as a spouse or family connection Outside, and were likely to leave anyways. The election just provided the final push.
For someone with no ties to go anywhere would be far more difficult, unless they had a lot of money, and even then, it wouldn’t be easy.
Inertia is very powerful.
For what it’s worth, it looks like Helen Thomas is taking things a step further. According to Drudge, Thomas is threatening to kill herself if Dick Cheney runs for the White House!!! I wish he would just announce he’s running tomorrow…just to see what the ugly old crone would actually do. Liberals really do have a tough time coming to terms with the fact that they do not just automatically get to run the country…
Can you share a bit of your analytical technique and show how you reached the conclusion that B and C sound serious, while A and Vedder do not?
There is SOME inconsistency in Baldwin’s story. He at first denied that Kim ever even spoke to Focus magazine, then later admitted that the interview happened but denied she said what she said.
However, I agree that the absence of a direct quote makes it fair to take him off the list.
Altman and Vedder’s comments are very offhand, vague and undetailed.
“I’m going to live the rest of my life in France” shows a lot more purpose and intent.
Example C said that the person in question was investigating buying a house in canada. That shows serious intent. The fact that the person made comments about his duty as a father (as misguided or alarmist as you might find them) at least indicate a sincerity.
Who was celebrity C? Did he go through with it?
Personally, my analysis was based on the fact that example A appears not to be a statement at all. The ellipses make it look like it was a condensation of a statement.
Thanks - that does make sense.
C is Steve Crawford, a singer and actor in the Pacific Northwest. He’s not a celebrity of the same magnitude any of the others are, of course, but I wanted to find a strong statement to compare to the others.
Apparently Mr. Crawford decided not to go through with it after all.
Yes, I know a couple who moved to Canada after the election–the 2000 election. While they wouldn’t say the election was the reason for them moving to Canada, they would say that it was largely the reason for leaving the United States. I think Canada is more of a metaphor, not for some liberal promised land, but for a country not unlike our own, just with a populace whose political ideas are more practical and less puritan, more humanitarian and less materialistic. Canada provides health care, such as it is, to all her people; Americans are quibbling over whether it’s fair to tax the estates of our wealthiest citizens. Americans are racked with fear and ambition; Canadians are…well…goofy and sweet. America has reservations; Canada has Nunavut. America has a lot of national parks; Canada has a lot of cities. It’s like bizarro-America, in a good way.
But why stop at Canada? They’re not that liberal, really. For me, it would be Amsterdam, if I could find a job there. And yes, I’m still thinking about it, though it would take me years to do it. The point is not to be here (in the USA). The 2000 election was devastating in the most malicious way; I don’t care what anyone says, the whole thing was a travesty, and I don’t think America will ever be the same. I’m not ever going to “get over it” for the same reason I’m not ever going to “get over” 9/11. The 2002 election was very disappointing (I never even cared about a mid-term election before). The 2004 election was enervating; like Star Wars Episode III: you knew it was going to be bad, you knew it was coming and there was no way to stop it, and you knew that afterwards it was going to be a very long time before the good guys were back on top again.
People fixate on leaders. But Bush is only so bad; he can only be the source of so much enmity. What changed for me between 2000 and 2004 was that instead of being horrified at the politics of the administration, I became more horrified by the politics of my fellow Americans. Everywhere in my life are conservatives; they are the people I love, the people I work with. They’re not evil, they’re not stupid, they’re not even unfriendly. But they are frightening to me. I so strongly disagree with their ideas, it bewilders most of them. My conservative friends console me by saying, “it doesn’t really matter who’s in charge.” Perhaps they don’t realize they are in charge.
And you’ve gotta admit, it’s starting to look like a stacked deck: conservative house, conservative senate, conservative administration, conservative legal branch (getting more conservative by the week). Wars and rumors of wars. Conservatives have it all. And they’re still so unhappy, the poor bastards! Liberals have a reason to be unhappy, thank you very much. But there’s no getting around it: that’s the way the country wants it. That’s America. We’re a conservative country.
So, no offense, kids, but I simply don’t want to live in a conservative country. Call me a whiner, a quitter, a traitor, whatever. Sticks and stones, baby; go buy another flag magnet and leave me alone. I don’t want to work within the system. Let’s say I woke up tomorrow morning in a colony of skinheads. I wouldn’t try to work within the organization to heal the skinheads of what I felt were their misguided ideas. I wouldn’t vote for the moderate skinhead leaders toward a more progressive leadership. No: I would simply leave. Same principle here: the American political spectrum has narrowed to a small sphere of conservative ideas, and I simply don’t feel I can exist within it anymore. I wouldn’t fight for us, I’m sorry to say (and not because I wouldn’t ever fight). I have had such great respect for the men and women who have died defending us, but I’m saddened to admit that that respect has been eroded by the knowledge that they are now the very base of the political machine that sends them to war unequipped. I’m not a patriot. I don’t love my country anymore. We’re kidding eachother to think otherwise. The affair is over; it’s time to move on.
I don’t see why this is so hard for people to understand. I didn’t choose to be born here, but I gave it a shot. I didn’t choose to be born Catholic, but I gave it a shot. It didn’t work out. I wasn’t sure about remaining a Christian, but I did until Christ was co-opted by the Republican party–then I was sure I couldn’t be a Christian anymore (Jesus understood; we’re still close). I couldn’t subscribe to anything that condemned the people I love as evil, to any philosophy that claimed to have the answers to so many of life’s mysteries nailed down into such a narrow vein of belief. Catholic, Christian…there came a time when the labels simply didn’t fit anymore. Now “American” is one of those labels. I feel like I’m here in suspended exile.
I believe in human and civil rights. I believe a society’s impoverished should be taken care of by the rest of us. I believe food, shelter, and health care must be rights of every person if we are to call ourselves the leaders of the free world (to say nothing of Christians). I believe 400 years of racism still impacts us, and that we must continue to correct that for as long as it takes. I don’t see why anyone needs to amass more than a certain amount of wealth, why it needs to be protected after their death. I would work to minimize abortion, but I won’t agree to make criminals out of ordinary women. I don’t need Christians to give up their precious sacrament, but I don’t believe my gay friends and family should be treated any differently under the law than straight people. I don’t believe in pre-emptive war. I believe it is better for the economy to suffer than the planet; for corporations to suffer instead of people. I believe America has never admitted to itself or the world that its treatment of native Americans constituted nothing short of genocide. I believe there are now numerous countries in the world less evil than the United States.
So you see, I’m simply not American other than by virtue of the fact I was born in this country. I’m going in a different direction. But I’d rather be wrong and true to myself. I used to proudly proclaim I was moving to Canada, right along with all my liberal friends. I don’t proclaim it anymore. I’m not proud; I’m simply resigned.
Sequent: Wow. Well, if you really feel that way you probably should leave. When do you expect you’ll be able to make the move? Is the hold up money, language, a job? Have you seriously looked into it or are you still at the idle speculation stage?
I hope (if you actually do go) that it works out for you and you don’t find out its simply a case of thinking the grass is always greener. Amsterdam is definitely a rocking good city to visit but you may find out that they have their problems too…and some of the same type problems that you listed here in fact. No war though nor any likely, so that would be a bonus.
-XT
That’s the trick, isn’t it? When does one become so alienated with one’s nation that it actually makes sense to leave it–especially when that country has the highest standard of living in the world? It’s very scary to think about–I hear a lot of people say, “I’ve travelled all over the world, but I’d never want to live anywhere except the USA.” And I believe them. It would be easier to stay here. I could make a lot more money, too.
I’d say I’m a sight past idle speculation but still short of concrete plans or even a specific destination. I’d want to spend more time in the Netherlands before really going for it. I speak English and passable French; if I moved there I would try to learn Dutch, as well. I’ve got family commitments here that will require me to stay for at least a few years if not longer. But as it’s a decision not made lightly, neither is it one quickly undertaken.