With all offense intended, get over yourself, Mermaid.
The Mermaid, the whole world is focussed on the US this week. The tragedy that occurred twelve months ago affected all of this earth’s inhabitants, not just New Yorkers. People from every country will be experiencing grief and will be mourning the loss of family, friends and perhaps just as intensely, the loss of a safe and secure future.
And we will be thinking of you in America, sharing in your especial time of rememberance and sadness. At times like this, there are no geographical boundaries.
Please do not suggest that our memories are so short.
I love living in the States, but there are parts of the states I wouldn’t live in either.
Anywhere that gets a lot of snow.
Anywhere that gets very cold.
Anywhere that has a really dry climate.
(I know this will sound insane, but I need humidity, I grew up around it and the one time I spent a good length of time without it, it drove me nuts.)
androsHey right back atcha buddy.
** kambuckta**I am sure you are sincere when you say that you “will be thinking of you in America, sharing in your especial time of rememberance and sadness” . I do not doubt your sincerity for a moment because you have always seemed like a rational and caring person. You have done nothing to make me think any different. I just think maybe the timing of your comment may be a little off.
My comment was made to point out that I feel that prefacing a statement with “no offense but” does not automatically make the following statement unoffensive.
Now I think I’ve explained myself enough.
I have lived in the US and would do so again in a heartbeat if my back injury allowed the travel. I managed in the midwest (even through winter) but would prefer Seattle or perhaps Providence but I had no problems anywhere I went, even being an obvious dyke. I think being able to say “g’day” outweighed my evil homosexuality 
That said, I missed Australia to my very core and was pleased to be home again.
Somebody said something about the differences between places in the US not comparing to differences between countries, and I guess that’s true, but I have ot make one observation: there’s a lot less of a cultural difference between parts of Canada and upstate New York than there is between NY and Mississippi, yet the first two are completely different countries and the second two are the same nation.
::shrugs and wanders away::
The Mermaid , neither of those comments would offend me at all. Perhaps if someone whose opinion mattered to me said either of them, I would think about it. Perhaps not.
There are some posters here from the U.S. who were not offended. Some thought the OP could have been titled more - shall we say - tactfully; I don’t think they were offended either. Are we all unreasonable people?
I am one of those U.S. citizens you are including in your generalizations. Please do not speak for me.
Thank you for correcting my usage of the word jingoistic. I learn something new every day.
kambuckta , I apologize for misspelling your name.
:shrug:
I’m not the one with my underwear in a wad.
You spelled it wrong, Jodi, it’s spelled B-a-l-t-i-m-o-r-e. Try and keep it straight, m’kay?
“I wouldn’t live there in a pink fit”
to the OP: neither would I ! or “down in america” as some of us in Alaska say…
My home in Alaska](http://www.visit-ketchikan.com/[/url)
Duckster
are you sure you have been to Australia? Certain? 'Cause the place you so frequently describe is so different to the place where I live that I get all confoozled.
The pensions bullshit – do a search on Centrelink and pensions. Bullshit.
Dunno about the UN study but it’s not true. The gaps are bigger in NZ.
Keating’s been gone for a while now. Our Prime Minister is a bloke called John Howard. Do a search – I’m sure there’s some info on the web which is more up-to-date than what you’re pulling out of your arse.
Your info on schoools is simply bizarre. While there are school levies, they are not so crippling as to put parents in jail. I managed to scrape together the $70 or so without too much bother. Actually the levy was so low I can’t even remember how much it was.
And yeah Australia is soooooo full of people who think it makes complete fiscal sense to restrict their earnings to below the threshold for their entire working life so they don’t have to pay back sums like USD50 000. Makes much more sense to earn bugger all because then you’re guaranteed your pension and all the joys of dealing with centrelink ::rolleyes::
Great, Thanks Now they’re gonna think they are our equals.
oops… the link is fixed now…so sorry…
In defense to The Mermaid she spoke on her own level, within her own terms by no means was she out of line.
I agree with her, although possibly in a different way. The timing was wrong and the title of the OP could have certainly been worded better.
Say “If you had to live anywhere else but your home country, where would that be?” Is far more constructive than what was written.
Hindsight on kambuckta may or may not be 20/20 but it does seem that quite often (9-11 this week or not) people not of US origin poopoo the US for possibly every reason that their media protrays us right or wrong.
andros I am not sure what it means to “get over yourself” within the confines of this particular thread. She spoke her mind and pointed something out that apparently was misused in the context.
Okay so what, The Mermaid was mildly annoyed by the OP, it is her right to say as such and by golly if people don’t follow everything everyone else says you are just being a selfish brat? Is that what this is about?
She had an opinion about the topic at hand and that’s fine.
Good God people, lighten up. She doesn’t need to “get over herself” some people just need to learn to read the members intention. If in anyway I felt that she was being selfish or whatever some of you thought, I would have pointed it out to her. But then again maybe I don’t qualify because I agree with her sentiment. Bad timing and bad choice of words on the part of the OP.
BTW, yes, 9-11 is a worldwide issue. 80 countries were “represented” but the act of terrorism was on American soil which was considered a very safe place to be for the most part until then. It scared the hell out of people not directly affected but it’s just bad timing and bad words that give people pause with regards to the title.
I must add. Living in the US is a great thing. There are bad things but there are good things. We all piss and poo like most everyone else…the appliance by which we do that may change but over all we all live on this place called Earth.
Hey wolfman they aren’t but gives them a sense of belonging.
< snort >
Actually techchick68, the point of my original post was that I would NOT want to live in America rather than where I WOULD want to live.
There seems to be a subtle yet pervasive attitude that everyone would want to be a Merkin if only they could be. Years of bombardment by western medias extolling the virtues of the US has resulted in your country being assumed to be the first choice for those considering leaving their own countries. I just wanted to challenge this dominant but, at least in my case, erroneous paradigm.
Funnily enough, I was just reading my Saturday broadsheet newspaper ‘letters’ section, and there was one that addresses this very issue. A chap had written (in response to another on 5/9) that…“If given the choice, everyone in the world wants to live in the US?” His response was, “Sorry, but no. It’s not even in my top ten”. (‘The Age’. 7/9/02 Insight p: 6)
That’s how I feel too. There was no sinister intent, nor did I wish to offend anyone. In retrospect, I will admit my timing may have been off, and I do apologise for that.
As long as I have my Prozac, I don’t care where I live. Every place has McDonald’s anyway !
I lived in England until I was 20 years old, when my parents decided to pack us up and move “back” to the States. I didn’t have much recollection of America at the time, even though I had dual UK/US citizenship. The US was the very last place in the world that I wanted to go to, but I had no relatives to help me out in the UK, and was rather worried about the job situation at the time. I had no wish to go on the dole.
Anyway, it wasn’t easy to get used to it here, but I think it was worth it. When I first got to the States, I was highly offended by what I saw as crass commercialism and ostentatious real estate. Extreme nationalism still ticks me off. I wish Americans would build a decent public transport system so I didn’t have to have a car. I wish it wasn’t so damn sunny all the time. I don’t understand all the “no trespassing” signs everywhere. And I wish Americans were a bit more liberal.
I’ll love England til the day I die, and I always think of the place with a pang of homsickness. Boxes filled with videos of Coronation Street and packets of Homewheats sent to me from friends in the UK help a lot.
What America gives me are just plain nice people; at least in KC they’re nice. I love that I can strike up a conversation with a complete stranger in the elevator. I love that the workmen putting in pavement in front of my house stopped to level my driveway with their machines when I asked them to. I like getting home from work and having a beer with my neighbor on my porch and waving/chatting to the people passing by. Not that there aren’t nice people in England…there just seems to be more of them in America. I also have a really great job because an American gave me a chance to jump into software development, with no prior experience whatsoever. I don’t know that that would have happened to me in the UK.
My point, kambuckta, is I used to be just like you, and it took me 10 years, living in five different parts of the states, but its finally happened, and I now am proud to claim America as my own. Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it, in case you happen to have 10 spare years of your life lying around:).
thx
kambuckta not to nit-pick but you did qualify it with where you would live if it weren’t your homeland. This means to me, and presumably others, that you would not live in the US but you did throw out there the places you would live. Hence my more appropriate thread title, if not exactly the intent of this thread…which, if you go back through and realize why some may be offended.
You then stated:
Here’s my perspective.
You worded it wrong, you apologized, great. However, other people climbed on someone’s back over an opinion she had over the wording. In my view, she had every right to her opinion.
Now that I know your intent was to say “I would NOT live in US” period, end of sentence…" then what exactly was your intention here? The “qualifiers” I mentioned above may look to some to be a veiled attempt to flipping the bird to the US and it’s citizens with a little fluff thrown in to cover your back in case someone takes offense but over all the more I think about it the more I do take offense.
People who have read my first post, that live in the US may take offense that I would never want to live in those places I mentioned and you know what? I make no apologies, I make no excuse, I don’t tell them, don’t take offense but… I plain wouldn’t want to. If they want an explanation, I am all for it but I didn’t start up front with a “Please don’t take offense; Texans, New Yorkers, Fransicoans…”
You may totally be sitting there and thinking, " WTF all I did is say I would never live in the US" but you gave raise to “don’t take offense but…” This is usually an attempt (in most circles I run in) to ward yourself from a backlash and the moment you say those words you have already put people on the defensive.
While that didn’t apply to everyone from the US that has posted, you need to understand where the backhanded anti-compliment is read. If you had titled it similar to what I had posted, be assured, this would have most likely remained in IMHO and also would would not have been so scrutinized. 9-11 or not, that’s how I see the situation.
It’s all about words, how you use them and how others may read them.
Or something like that.
Orritey, I’ve pussyfooted around this thread long enough with lighthearted “let’s have a beer” posts. Please allow me to pour out some rambling thoughts in a more serious manner:
I like kambuckta. Most of you would too, if you ever had a chance to meet her. She’s funky, cool, and dangerously smart. However, I wouldn’t have posted the OP she did. But then, one of my biggest faults is being too diplomatic - I have a lot of respect for her for having had the guts to post it. To be honest, when I saw the original thread title, I thought, “Ohhhhhhh fuck. Ohfuckohfuckofuckohfuck, I ain’t opening that in a pink fit. It’s probably some newbie from England or somewhere who is going to get piled on within an inch of his or her life.” Then I saw it was by kambuckta, a person I do genuinely consider a friend, and thought, “Hmmm… I’m interested to see why she posted that, I can imagine the turn the thread has taken, and I’d better go in to bat for her”. No offence, k, I know you’re big and mean enough to fight your own battles, but that’s just the way I felt.
I have never been to America. I would dearly love to go (not sure if I’d live there though). The United States has shot up my list of “must see countries” in the last 18 months, thanks to the SDMB. This isn’t meant to sound patronising, but I consider you lot as “my tame, pet Americans”. I LIKE y’all. You are a proud, confident, powerful, free and democratic nation. Nuffin’ wrong with that. I watched the WTC collapse live on TV. I felt sick and scared. I almost kept out of the thread which was current at the time for fear of being seen as an outsider rubbernecking at a road accident, but I came in because I was experiencing that particular horror with you. Being home alone (it was night here), I will be forever grateful for having US friends on the Dope to make things that little bit easier. Hugging my cat didn’t quite cut it.
Nevertheless, and despite the utterly reasonable posts of the likes of Jodi and others, this thread has disappointed me. It wasn’t titled “How Can You Dipshit Yanks Live in Such a Shithole Festering Armpit of a Country?”. It was “No Offence to US Citizens, (bolding mine), But I Wouldn’t Live There in a Pink Fit!” Kambuckta posted this in IMHO as pure opinion (prefaced with an appropriate disclaimer in the title itself). That is what the SDMB is all about. If I were so sensitive about criticism of Australia (especially flawed criticism), I’d be dragging the likes of Duckster through their own Pit thread. It’s honestly not worth the trouble.
So somebody isn’t lining up for a Green Card. Deal with it.