I have always felt that if more of the INS was armed, the militia-types would have a totally different bogey man to fear. A guy who grew up near me went into that line of work. By the end of his indoctrination period, he was a zealot on the issue of bad things/people entering the country. It was not that we needed to secure our borders (with which I would agree), but it was a personal insult to him that any border had ever been breached–and this was before he had his first assignment.
That was what got me the most. These guys, looking at us like friggin cocaine smugglers…you can practically see the falls from their station, and they are actually saying “what were you doing in Canada”. What the hell do you think? Um, looking at this huge, enormous natural piece of beauty? Buying crappy souveniers at a great exchange rate? Duh!! They probobly detained us because I was a smartass, anyway.
An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.
The thing i like about the US is never having to say you’re sorry, and other countries spend inordinate amounts of time and energy bitching about us. They’re lucky if we even know where they are.
The quote about the US being like a big dog in a small room is priceless.
the thing i hate about the us is that nobody says their sorry. the thing i like about the us is that you can bitch em around like a dog with a peg-leg, because they dont even know who you are if you arent living in the states
we have a word for it here in iceland, and im starting to belive it was made to suit america. its “heimskur”, basically it can be translated to stupid or dumb, but the explanation of the word in iceland says alot more. person who is “heimsk” only knows her home, and is oblivious to everything outside it.
you might notice the “heim”, that being the basis of the word. translation of it would be = home. although this involves quite a number of things i dont want to get into(grammar and stuff in iceland isnt for americans).
Pardon the cussword here :). I hope the useage of it isnt too much for the BBQ pit.
Well bjorn, we have a word here in Northern California that fits arrogant Icelanders. The word is Bitch. It can either be an adjective, or a verb. It tends to mean something like, a person who does nothing but runs his mouth and who has nothing worthwhile to say. Thus he is not worth really getting upset over, but ripe for being laughed at.
It also explains the action the person is perfoming, as in “Why does Bjorn bitch so much about the US, if i didnt know better, you would think he’s a tad obsessed, since you never really see him post on any other threads.” (I wonder about you sometimes bjorn, do you come here to get your US bashing rocks off or what? It’s actually kind of scary in an obsessive, psycho way).Those kinds of things. There are a lot of grammar issues and subtleties of the word, but English grammar and colloquialisms are not the type of thing an annoying Icelander like you can handle. Sorry Bjorn, but you obviously aren’t ready for English Colloquialisms 101 (Basic Colloquialisms). Maybe if you were less of a well, bitch, you could handle it. But, that day is far, far away.
I love Canada. I’m only about an hour from it and going over the bridge is like stepping back in time. Everyone is much friendlier in Ontario and it’s like being in the 60’s or seventies with really high taxes.
Sure, they have given us Celine Dion, Anne Murray and Shania Twain. Good grief, the US has tortured the world with the likes of
Barbara Streisand, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, not to forget any one hit wonder band wearing leather outfits in the 80’s.
If you have ever had the chance to watch CBC, you will see some rather interesting television programming that is excellent. We often watch CBC at night to get a better and unbiased view of what is really happening in the world. (There is this really good looking indian anchorman that I catch from time to time that I could stalk, too.) Also, being in Detroit (sorta) Hockey Night in Canada is better than church with the Most High n Mighty Don Cherry officiating.
My husband played in a casino in North Dakota for about a month one time and wanted to make a trip up into Seskatchewan (the one above ND-pardon me, I don’t have a map here!). Anyway, being an adventure kind of guy, he likes to take the little backroads to see the country and took along his long haired drummer with him. The Canadian border guard at this one little lonely station must’ve been so bored cause he stopped there for about 1/2 hour while he strip-searched their car (if you can do such a thing - ) looking for drugs cause they told him they were musicians. Geez!
Is socialized medicine something to be proud of? I thought it was the reason people in England had such ugly teeth–the government decides what kind of medical procedures are important and worth spending its money on, and dental health, since life doesn’t depend on it, takes a very low priority. Socialized medicine makes me think of HMOs (again, the government or a corporation deciding what is important enough to spend its money on, and just how much they’re willing to spend) which everyone complains about here.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
To be clear about the medical system in Canada, it’s not socialized medecine. That would be where the government funds and administers doctors and hospitals directly. What we have is socialized medical insurance: everyone’s got it.
The government exercises a lot of control over the medical system because it does fund it directly, though not entirely. It’s better than HMOs, but not as good as having a fat, private health insurance policy and a private hospital full of overpaid surgeons.
Is 40 million Americans without health care something to be proud of?
Government paying to straighten your teeth, surely that should be low priority?
Maybe it’s just the Americans I know but I seem to hear more complaining about not having health care, full stop. In ‘socialised medicine’ countries (ie the rest of the first world) the health care may not be perfect but at least it’s available to everyone. Before you criticise it ask how many of us would switch our health care system for yours, almost no-one is the answer.
Bíonn caora dhubh ar an tréad is gile (there is a black sheep even in the whitest flock).
You have that wrong. According to my copy of The Globe and Mail Style Guide, we use Americans to refer to residents of the US, but we do not use America to refer to the entire country. Americans live in the US, not America, just like Canadians live in Canada, not Canadia.
I honestly can’t think of any good reason why anyone would hate Canada, except out of jealousy. I can’t stand Bryan Adams either, but come one, even if it’s just for the post-Dark Ages health care policies, it seems obvious to me that Canada simply has a higher quality of life than the United States. And it’s mostly Canada’s doing. I haven’t spent much time in Canada, so I’m not saying I think 98% of Canadians deserve to be canonized or anything. If I weren’t a deepthinking progressive / wimpy seditious Satan-worshipping pinko (take your pick), I would probably feel differently.
I’m just annoyed that there is ANY animosity between the two countries that share the longest non-militarized frontier in the world. I guess it’s inevitable or something, but I mean, some countries have REAL issues to be bitter at each other for, like mustard gas. Canada and the U.S. have “beer transparency issues”. GTFU
Aww come now Boris B, i really dont hate Canada. Actually i would probably like living in Vancouver (similar in looks to a lot of areas of coastal California, superficially, so it would remind me of home). If Americans really hated Canada, we would all have anti Canada rallies and the INS stopping Canadians at the border :).
[[We are bigger than you. Check a map.]]
Yeah, but most of it is virtually uninhabitable.
[[We fought you once in 1814. We won. Yep, marched right down into Washington and burned down the White House.]]
Oh, you did no such thing – you were just a Brit base.
[[We have two official languages. You guys don’t even have one.]]
Sounds like it’s been more trouble than it’s worth – anyway, Spanish might as well be the USA’s second official language.
[[Our national anthem actually has the name of the country in it.]]
I don’t care about the name, but you do have us there.
[[We have socialized (i.e. free at point-of-sale) medicine.
If you were a socialist in the US in the fifties, you got blackballed. If you were a socialist in Canada in the fifties, you got elected to the Saskatchewan legislature.]]
You really got us there, IMO.
[[You spend far too much on the military.]]
Maybe if you guys would pick up some of the slack …
[[Metric. Admit it. It is so much easier to multiply by 10 than it is to remember how many rods there are in a furlong.]]
Screw metric!
[[We have never had a civil, revolutionary, or Vietnam war.]]
Well, you had colonial wars – meanwhile, we were doing the dirty work defending democracy, blah blah …
doob: long time no argue!
acually ive been posting in the great debates(some ufo thingy, and everything/nothing thread i started), and a couple of others…
the other things you say just prove that what is said about you staters is true
if you read carefully you might notice that its you people in the us who are the ones that hate other countries, so much that you think they hate you. you are afraid that if you let your guard down(the army)youll be attacked. personally i like living in a country where i dont have to worry about being drafted in some stupid army! what a silly concept
