What are you doing listening to CBS Rickjay. May I suggest ABC if you want stateside reportage. After all, I’m sure Peter Jennings wouldn’t ignore Canada.
I find that comforting. When I lived in New York when I planned on going somewhere for an event it was just as likely to be Montreal or Toronto as it was Chicago or DC. (I never went anywhere US or otherwise really) and I never really thought any different of it.
Erek
He said WHAT?!? That unspeakable bastard!
Is it possible to send scathing letters of condemnation to the network? I’d like to sign up.
I’ve been in the U.S. for over 6 years now, and I have to say I have NEVER heard an American say a bad thing about us Canadians…
Whenever people find out I’m Canadian, they share stories of friends in Canada, family members in Canada or reminisce about trips to Canada…
A friend and I once went to an Oakland vs Toronto baseball game, and as a joke I brought a huge Canadian flag out to his car when he picked me up.
I planned on leaving it in the car when we got to the stadium, but I kept telling him I was going to wave it from the first inning until the last inning… Waving a huge Canadian flag at a baseball game in a stadium full of Americans was never a part of my plan…
As we parked the car, I tried to leave it on the back seat of the car, but my American friend however, insisted on bringing the flag with him… He knew that the stadium was probably not exactly overflowing with Canadians, so he decided to “help out”…
He waved it all the way into the stadium, and throughout the game… And chanted “Blue Jays, Blue Jays” over and over - even though he is an Oakland fanatic…
I know that there were no other Canadian flags there, and we were surrounded by thousands of Oakland fans, but the people around us had NO problem, and played along with the whole thing…
I think for a good part of the game I tried to hide and I probably blushed through all nine innings, but thinking back, I had a fabulous time!
The media may forget us, but the people here DON’T… They are our family, and while we may have political differences from time to time, I have no doubt they would help us in a heartbeat if we needed it.
I look forward to the day when I am a citizen of BOTH of these great countries.
SFCanadian
Speaking as a Canadian, I’d just like to let you guys know that this little conversation made me choke up a bit for the first time since this whole mess started.
I’ve always loved the United States, and I’ve always loved Canada. Too many times I’ve been dismayed at the level of vitriol that some of my fellow citizens have hurled at the U.S. But you’re right - it’s like a relationship of brothers. I love that.
We can take some comfort in knowing that out of all the horror of this some good things will eventually happen. I hope one of them is that Canada and the U.S. will find themselves closer than ever.
I will say this: The worst, the absolute most evil, despicable, reprehensible, the most horrible aspect of Canadianism I can possibly think of…
… Is their quarters.
We get a lot of 'em here in Alaska, and the damned, evil, Illuminati-run soda machines won’t take 'em!
Their Loonies are cool though. 
Seriously- I’ve driven through Canada any number of times, heading up (Alaska? Head North 'til you get to Canada, hang a left, you can’t miss it") or heading down (“Just drive South 'til people stop saying ‘eh?’ all the time.”)
I can honestly say many of the Canadians I know or have met seem like better people than many of the Americans I’ve known.
Last trip through, I got a flat. I threw on the spare and hit a backwater-town Canadian Tire. They had the unmitigated gall to charge me $10 Canadian for a very good used tire, which took ten or twenty minutes to find in their stacks of spares, plus mounting and balancing. Three years later it’s still in the car as the spare.
The whole vinegar on fries thing escapes me, though.
If you look up the term “pompous ass” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of Dan Rather next to it.
I don’t know how the man keeps his job. When this whole thing broke on Tuesday morning, someone turned on the television in the conference room where I work. It stayed on Dan for all of 10 minutes until my boss was sick of him and changed the channel.
Canada has always helped us out when the chips were down, and everyone here in the U.S. knows and appreciates it.
Doc Nickel
I used to get a lot of Canadian coins when I was in Michigan, and while they didn’t work in pop (yes, dammit–pop) machines, I found newspaper vending machines and coin-operated washers would take them every time.
I also recall when the Canadian dollar ran ahead of the US dollar during the Vietnam War. Maybe this wouldn’t be a bad time to hold onto those quarters.
So true. On the day of the tragedy, a reporter said that people were angry and wanted vengeance. Dan replied, with great solemnity, "A wise man once said to me, ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold.’ "
Which wise man was that, Dan, the villain in every other action movie ever made? The editor of the Whopping Cliche Dictionary? Dan Rather is the William Shatner of the journalism world; he crossed over to self-parody a long, long time ago.
RickJay: this American is deeply grateful for Canada and everything that Canadians have done for us. Don’t think we don’t know who our friends are.
This is the first news-related rant that I can whole-heartedly agree with. That was an asinine comment that Rather made, I hope he chokes on it.
Dan Rather claimed he was on the parade route in Dallas under the bridge (films show he wasn’t there) and almost witnessed JFK getting shot, then he claimed he broke the news of JFK dying 13, then 14, then 15, then 16 minutes before anyone else (who cares who broke it first, the guy was dead) every year it gets a little longer…
Then on a show about the assassination he giggled and said “we will probably never know what happened in Dallas that day”
Gee Dan, isnt that what you are supposed to do as a journalist? Gerald Posner did it, so we DO know what happened that day.
And then as some deadly Hurricane ravaged 40% of Jamaica
and headed towards the US, he giggled again and acted like it was all just a disaster movie and Jamaicans didn’t matter.
The guy is a nutcase.
I watch him only when I need a good laugh. Don’t let Dan Blather get to you.
But then I heard Peter Jennings saying something like “it is now a certainty that blah blah balh…but that is only speculation”
And Tom “the greatest generation” Brokaw is an idiot too. It looks like you may have to “write” a new book Tom…maybe THIS generation is even better.
I hate all of them (and now here comes Paula Zahn. (2 million a year???)
I just wanted to point out that the point to my rant was not that Canadian are underappreciated by Americans. I know we aren’t, and anyway, even if we were, it’s not as if you don’t have other things on your mind.
The point to my rant is that Dan Rather is a stupid, worthless, no-good dickhead, an absolute shit journalist, and a waste of good hydrocarbons.
Thanks.
I’ve heard it said that behind a desk, Dan looks like he’s waiting for the Mothership to come back for him.
Sheesh, I wish they’d hurry up. I much prefer Peter Jennings.
I’ve been channel-surfing a lot lately, and I have to say I’ve barely watched CBS at all. Hell, it’s been so long since I last saw Dan, I didn’t even know his hair was turning grey!
The guy just gives me the creeps. I half-expect him to dive under his desk screaming, “They’re coming!!!”
Danny boy lost it last night on Letterman.
The guy is unstable and here he is anchoring a major news program.
I’m not a fan of Dan Rather, but…
He was on the air for 15 hours per day, 4 days in a row, reporting the most tragic news ever. He’s also an American, who is as upset about this as anyone else. I wouldn’t call it being unstable, rather very tired and very sad about what has happened to our country. Personally, I haven’t had a day go by where I haven’t been at least teary-eyed–and I didn’t have to immerse myself in it like he did.
He’s still a fucknut, nonetheless, but it was heartening to see his human side.
I just wanted to commend you on what a fabulous, excellent, superb and accurate description that was.
Bra-fuckin-vo.
You Canucks should dispatch Peter Jennings over to give Dan Rather all the titty-twisters, noogies, wedgies, and swirlies he can administer. It would be well-deserved, and it would give viewers a much-needed cathartic laugh. The thing that scares me about Dan Rather is that old people watch CBS and old people vote in greater numbers than anyone else…shudder…think about that for a moment.
Take heart, RickJay…besides, Kids in the Hall makes up for any entertainment atrocities you may have exported.
Journalists need to get it right.
Exactly! He should have been home sleeping instead of on a show that probably shouldn’t have been on in the first place. I can understand getting emotional like Walter Cronkite did when he announced JFK dying, but Rather is just fucking strange.