You mean in some of those third world nations where they would have started shooting once the election became confusing?
Marc
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On the other hand who cares what Libya has to say about anything?
Well they didn’t start out as our wars. I know some British and Canadian folk who like to joke that the US is late to every war. Well, Europe was their backyard and they were the ones who failed to prevent two world wars. It wasn’t the fault of the United States.
Marc
Excuse me, but I see this is still listed under the Great Debates. Can we stick with the OP please instead of cheesy comments?
MGibson, I hope that you are being ironic or sarcastic rather than serious.
Any country or person that signs a “ban on greenhouse gasses (sic)” is pretty damn stupid, as well as being scientifically illiterate. I really don’t think this is what you meant to say…
Ah stop your whining, Americans engage in just as much bashing of other countries. A couple of examples from this board:
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Now do you really want me to start searching for some of the more right wing American pundits thoughts on other nations, or are you prepared to accept that we’re all quite fond of insulting people we don’t really know?
And as separate questions:
Europe is Canada’s back yard? And how was Britain meant to prevent a world war?
Yup, thanks to Louis Pasteur. 
<Pratchett>Go and take your dried frog pills, Bursar.</Pratchett>
If the only perspective you have of your own indigenous culture is generated from within, it seems pretty likely that exposure to other, less patriotic influences and vested interests is likely to be occasionally jarring.
Thus, If you only want to hear how great is any particular society, don’t mix with foreigners, even on message boards.
IMHO and in relation to the US in particular, the difficulty you have is, firstly, the media and secondly a lack of regular exposure to a breadth of views through actual interaction.
Re: the Ugly American
At least try to say L’arc de Triomphe correctly. I haven’t spent much time abroad in Germany (I’ve spent most of it in either England or France) so maybe they’re more accepting. I’ll take your word for it. I guess you haven’t been on a tour group. That’s where you see the people who try to get a hamburger everywhere they go. I actually saw a person save the rolls so he could cut them open and put his steak on them. It was hilarious
Bush has said we’d share the technology, but he hasn’t said the shield itself would protect the Western Bloc to the best of my knowledge. Even if we did build it to protect them as well, most other countries fear it could lead to another arms buildup
As for the treaty on children’s rights, being the only superpower we add a lot of gravity to any document. Nigeria won’t feel like it has to actually do all the stuff the document says, but if we sign it and they break the treaty they could lose oil money. That’s why Western Bloc countries are pissed we haven’t signed it, because they’re not as threatening without us.
Also, I was talking about the Kyoto Protocol. I’m pretty sure that if it doesn’t ban greenhouse gases it severely restricts them. Agree with it or not, considering that we produce so much and that Europe doesn’t want us to is a good example of why they don’t like us.
RE: Voting and "Democracy"
The election was decided the way the law said it should be. If you disagree with the laws, that doesn’t mean democracy failed.
I can’t believe I’m hearing this.
RE: Cheese
I don’t know what I would do without processed cheese. It melts so much better on burgers! 
RE: My Limited View
Well, having the distinct privilege of actually living in America, I see plenty of reasons why I don’t like it (or at least why I don’t like many things about it). But I do wonder about world opinion…
I am not sure I agree with the whole jealousy idea, I don’t think many countries necessarily want to be the US, but I bet a lot of coutries (and their citizens) are like armchair quarterbacks about America’s foreign policy:
“America is so stupid for doing this. If I were America…”
Well, I guess we all do this. Thing is, I have quite a few problems with the way European countries handle their affairs, none-the-less China and the Middle East, but I don’t jump on the chance to get a few licks in when those topics come up, know what I mean? When America or America’s policy comes up it seems it is more of a destructive attack than a constructive criticism.
I was just wondering what made the US special in this regard, or if it was just me. (mommy always said! :p)
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If they have a country as geographically vast as ours, with a few large population centers, then yeah, they should certainly consider something like an electoral college. Next question?
Read between the lines of virtually all foreign criticism of the USA, and it comes down to other countries desiring to reduce America’s power and prominence, and even the playing field.
Forgive us if we don’t want to play that game.
But if it would make you feel better, we can go back into Clinton-mode, and sign superficial, feel-good treaties that we have no intention of ratifying, implementing or enforcing …
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When I speak Spanish or German I do so with a Texas twang. I have an especially hard time with French words having never studied it. I’ve noticed that plenty of foreigners in the US do not pronounce words correctly. Sometimes this can be frustrating when you can’t understand a darn thing this person is trying to tell you. But I won’t hold it against them. When you pronounce Mexico do you make a sharp X sound or do you use a soft H?
I think the French are overly uptight about their language. And if they choose to be the ugly Frenchman then that’s their business.
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While this is hilarious it isn’t what I’d call an example of an ugly American.
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I understand their fears. Personally I’m not convinced that building it would be in our best interest. If I did think it was in our best interest I would support it over the objection of our allies.
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And then when we turn around and act threatening we’re showing our imperialist colors. We just can’t win.
I don’t know how severly it restricts it. I do know that some countries such as China would be exempt. If the rest of the world procudes 70% of the greenhouse gasses they should be just as thrilled about signing it without the United States.
Marc
In an attempt to avoid sounding cheesy, or to re-iterate previous material, let me offer some other hypotheses about bashing of America:
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International Politics - Although you don’t think about it, perhaps, most of the really aggressive “bashing” comes from countries with political interests opposed to ours in some way. Bashing by Cuba or Libya may be the extreme example, but this would apply, for instance, to occaisions where Third World nations jump on a band-wagon of bashing over some perceived slight by the United States. Politics causes many people to say what might otherwise seem to be silly or unfounded things.
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Arrogance by Americans - This country still labors under the impression that we are the best, do everything the best, can’t be beaten at anything we really put our minds an bodies to, and have a superior culture. Cases in point: most Americans feel we have a better country than Canada, though empirical data supporting such an assertion is in general lacking (PLEASE don’t start trying to supply it here…). Similarly, we treat Mexico as if it were some horrible Third World nation barely better off than the various nations of Africa or Southeast Asia, ignoring the fact that it does at least as well as some European nations economically and socially. We treat our sports as the best in the world, and not only don’t WATCH the sport the rest of the world goes nuts over, we constantly denigrate it as being inferior, and something no real man would play. VERY few Americans are bilingual; we tend to expect English to be spoken by everyone we encounter, in or out of our country. And we constantly assert that our political system is the ONLY way to truly run a country fairly and well, ignoring the unique historical circumstances, not to mention the socio-political advantages we have, that make our particular flavor of “democracy” workable in this country (I shudder at the thought of the People’s Republic of China run under our system…).
Our tendency to thumb our noses at anyone and everyone else and go our own way is what built this country (well, that plus a healthy dose of seemingly now absent intelligent thought and wise decision-making with an eye to the future). Love us or hate us, we are Americans, and the heck with what anyone else thinks. 
Well, see, that’s what makes it hard to explain - how the election could have been decided by the court system and not the people in a putative democracy. The Supreme Court stopped the counting of votes, and selected their own candidate themselves - that’s how a banana republic works, not a democracy. The only way you can call that a “bright, shining moment for democracies everywhere” is to point to the lack of rioting - other than the GOP-organized one at Miami-Dade to stop the counting of people’s votes, of course.
There are virtually no scholarly analyses of the court decision that offer anything beyond simple apologism for it, and a number that expose it for being results-oriented and a violation of separation of powers. But if you’re proud of those ringing words “Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances”, go right ahead and be proud. The rest of us will continue to value democracy. The rest of the world will continue to wonder “What the hell were they thinking, and how did they get away with it?”, and rightly so.
Not denigrating your post DSY, but do these other European nations support upwards of 5 million illegal immigrants in the last decade?
Lemme see…
We elected our Big Cheese on election day just as you did except we got it all done in a day and went put for beer and cheese afterwards. You guys probably went for beer and cheese afterwards except your beer doesn’t go well with cheese, in fact… it doesn’t go well with anything. You proably have some pretty good cheese though.
You guys are so protective of your cheese that you feel that everyone has the right to arm bears… I mean… bear arms. Really… if the bears were armed they would get more cheese and that would be a bad thing.
It’s a right that every Candian enjoys, the right to bear cheese. Because everyone needs cheese to survive. We have intricate social programs so that everyone gets their cheese.
If we eat some bad cheese we don’t have to worry about having the medical profession take care of us. That’s why we pay a much higher cheese tax.
How can you drive your cheese anywhere with the roads you have? If I am crossing the border with my cheese I can tell when I’ve crossed with my eyes closed. One should not bump the cheese.
I can take my cheese anywhere without worrying too much about any criminals hurting me to get my cheese.
You guys often say you have the best cheese but I know a little dairy that makes cheddar so good Spoofe might renounce his citizenship. Really.
Now I’m hungry dammit… it’s a good thing I have cheese.
Yes, but the Bush camp whined repeatedly about how the Gore folks were trying to exercise their legal right for hand counts, and five conservative Judges on the US Supreme Court decided to help them out by stopping said recount. That’s not the rule of law by any means.
Yes, but that’s because Al Gore is a better man than the twink who “won” the election.
Americans, cocky and arrogant? Now where do people get that impression? :rolleyes:
There are lots of good books written by legal experts on all the warts in the USSC decision in Bush v. Gore; I have yet to hear of anything comparable supporting the opposite side. When even die-hard conservative judges like Robert Bork (remember him?) decried the decision as hopelessly biased, you have to wonder what flavor of Kool-aid the Bush apologists are drinking.
I’m of the opinion that Rehnquist and O’Connor want to retire under a conservative president, Scalla wants the Chief Justice job, Thomas wanted revenge on Gore and Lieberman for opposing him during the Anita Hill debacle, and Kennedy went along for the ride.
It’s really a pity that the Supreme Court judges are not subjected to any sort of judicial review; I’d love to hear Scalla and Rehnquist explain how they did a 180-degree turnaround in their interpretation of the “equal protection” clause in Bush v. Gore from their previous rulings against it.
California cheese? They want that? They can have it! Gimmie cheese that actually melts without needed exposure to nuclear blast temperatures.
The truth is they want our eggs. Our brown eggs. 'Cause brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are fresh!
Perhaps because we preach democracy and sovereignty, but then we prevent that very thing from happening in South and Central America. We claim the people should have a say in their own government-but when they vote for someone who doesn’t meet our agenda, we kick him out-Allende in Chile?
So we didn’t agree with him?
US-we’re for democracy-but only as long as it benefits us.
The blatant neo-imperialism in Latin America is probably the best example. We basically controlled them through puppet governments, supporting fascist dictators, etc etc.
Face it-so many bitch about the UN usurping our “sovereignty”, but then why the HELL did we do the same in Chile, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba and Honduras?
It’s pot-kettle-black.
If you want sites, peeps, I got 'em.
In fact, every single country in South and Central America is now a democracy except for Cuba. Guinastasia, are you saying that the US has done too little to try to overthrow Casto?