And in the spirit of jackelope, let’s hear it for Americans who bullishly assert their own opinions without bothering to check the facts!
Hip-hip-hooray!
MUSICAL THEATER!
Sure, there’s some Brits and Dutchmen and Germans in it now, but we have or had Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin, Steven Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Lerner & Loewe, Rodgers & Hart, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Adam Guettel, Maury Yeston, Jonathan Larson…not to mention the fantastic actors, librettists, costume and set designers, and musicians helping them to create a new art form–not quite a play, not quite an opera, but a rowdy blend of the two. ON THE TOWN, OKLAHOMA, SHOWBOAT, TITANIC, RENT, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, DAMN YANKEES, CAROUSEL, PAL JOEY…the theater’s not as important as it was but almost everybody knows a tune from at least one of these shows.
Also, this guy’s in the previous list too but gets his own space; perhaps our greatest composer to date:
George Gershwin.
Also, we make the whole world laugh! Ashamed as we may be sometimes of them, it’s our sitcoms that can be seen from Dhaka to Dresden to Djibouti!
And we’ve given the world the Marx Brothers. If America was a Catholic person’s soul, they alone would be worth 1,000 years off Purgatory.
I was lead to believe they were state-run.
And I would remind you that our government of checks, balances, and popular votes has kept those people down to the level where this country is still mainly secular at the official level. Our President is not ‘Defender of the Faith by Grace of God’ or ‘Head Mullah Peace Be Upon Him,’ but simply Mr. President.
Nice exception to the general rule you’ve found. I’ll see your religious graffito on my currency and raise you one ban on school-lead prayer.
Well, be sure to wear a condom. You’ll find them cheaply available in the ‘better’ truckstop restrooms. 
** Mehitabel **, you stole my post (and are a Doper after my own heart). New York City and Broadway! The greatest thing in this country. Only London comes close. And where else do you find Footlight Records, where you can actually buy CDS of these shows in other languages?
And the way we bounced back from 9/11. That totally amazes me. Most other countries would have been devastated. New York City saw a new reality and just went with it! Truly a miracle.
Ya know, what annoys me about giving the US well-deserved kudos is the insistence amongst some Americans that “most other countries” would do this or that, or that America is the “best in the world” at various things. The first assertion is just plain wrong, and the second is open to debate. By all means big-up your country, because it is a great country full of wonderful things, but don’t put other places down from a position of supposition and ignorance.
Hear Hear jjimm.
I love many things about American culture, and even some of its history, as seen from the outside as well as inside.
But I must take exception when people resort to bashing other countries in order to prove they are better.
There are many Democracies in the Western world which could be seen as more democratic if you look at the number of parties does that mean they are better democracies… no. It works for them just as the two party system works for the United States. It’s different not more right or wrong.
Still in the Spirit of the OP
As a Canadian the things about the U.S. A that I like:
The Simpsons,
Hollywood
Some fast foods
An interesting dynamic History
The Sapranoes
Your National Anthem is pretty nifty.
Rock and Roll
And lets face it Most of you folks are pretty decent good people, except those who turn boasting into bashing.