The United States of America - my thoughts so far

[SteveLaura 0]

British news has had it's fair share of eye-candy (Katie Derham & Sue Turton) but I agree - you do get a sense that they have an inkling of where some of the countries they report on actually are. But then, look at our beloved leader. I enjoy watching his pre-written speeches, much more so than his off-the-cuff remarks. Whenever he uses a big word, I hope that a reporter will ask him afterwards, "You mentioned 'annexation' - could you explain what that means exactly?"

[Captain Oates 911]

British news has had it's fair share of eye-candy (Katie Derham & Sue Turton) but I agree - you do get a sense that they have an inkling of where some of the countries they report on actually are. But then, look at our beloved leader. I enjoy watching his pre-written speeches, much more so than his off-the-cuff remarks. Whenever he uses a big word, I hope that a reporter will ask him afterwards, "You mentioned 'annexation' - could you explain what that means exactly?"

Yes and this sarah Palin the new vp to be has just got her first passport and has been to the outside world once so she knows all about it now...

just like my cat looked out into the garden once when i left the door open so it knows all about bees

The average bus station lavatory cleaner in england has more international travel experience than the potential president of the United States of America !

Anyone in england who gets to 44 without a passport is a class 1 dork and no mistake and probably has no driver's license and still lives with his mum

Still, she doesnt need to target the nukes, just press that big red button - even George could do that after trying to pull it a few times

jeez I am glad I am old and going to die soon anyway - your life in their hands or what !

Edited September 3, 2008 by saywhat

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

backwater redneck hell?

Talk about stereotypes....

stereotypes are very important and valid in 95% of cases or they wouldn't be stereotypes.

LOL saywhat this is definitely for you.....

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/06/25/winner-5/

Specifically - "White people love sounding smarter than their peers and will jump at any chance to use a statistic if it's applicable to the conversation in any way. The more absurd the statistic, the more clever and original you will seem. Stats can also hide negative feelings. If you meet a white person who wishes went to aschool that they refer to as the Harvard of the (Region where the university they attended is), they may say something like "Good thing I didn't go to an Ivy since 35% of their graduates reported being unhappy with their lives. It is considered rude to laugh and you should instead smile or throw in another appropriate statistic if handy."

Edited September 4, 2008 by lancer1655

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Oh yeah here is my smile

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

backwater redneck hell?

Talk about stereotypes....

stereotypes are very important and valid in 95% of cases or they wouldn't be stereotypes.

LOL saywhat this is definitely for you.....

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/06/25/winner-5/

Specifically - "White people love sounding smarter than their peers and will jump at any chance to use a statistic if it's applicable to the conversation in any way. The more absurd the statistic, the more clever and original you will seem. Stats can also hide negative feelings. If you meet a white person who wishes went to aschool that they refer to as the Harvard of the (Region where the university they attended is), they may say something like "Good thing I didn't go to an Ivy since 35% of their graduates reported being unhappy with their lives. It is considered rude to laugh and you should instead smile or throw in another appropriate statistic if handy."

I absolutely love that blog. See also the entry on grammar:

People love rules. It explains why so they get upset when people cut in line, why they tip so religiously and why they become lawyers. But without a doubt, the rule system that white people love the most is grammar. It is in their blood not only to use perfect grammar but also to spend significant portions of time pointing out the errors of others.

When asking someone about their biggest annoyances in life, you might expect responses like “hunger,” “being poor,” or “getting shot.” If you ask a white person, the most common response will likely be “people who use ‘their’ when they mean ‘there.’ Maybe comma splices, I’m not sure but it’s definitely one of the two.”

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/12/99-grammar/

[Captain Oates 911]

backwater redneck hell?

Talk about stereotypes....

stereotypes are very important and valid in 95% of cases or they wouldn't be stereotypes.

LOL saywhat this is definitely for you.....

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/06/25/winner-5/

Specifically - "White people love sounding smarter than their peers and will jump at any chance to use a statistic if it's applicable to the conversation in any way. The more absurd the statistic, the more clever and original you will seem. Stats can also hide negative feelings. If you meet a white person who wishes went to aschool that they refer to as the Harvard of the (Region where the university they attended is), they may say something like "Good thing I didn't go to an Ivy since 35% of their graduates reported being unhappy with their lives. It is considered rude to laugh and you should instead smile or throw in another appropriate statistic if handy."

I was born white but it never rains here so I am black now.. like michael jackson in reverse

also, 97.9% of people who rubbish the use of statistics have no empirical evidence to support their position

100% of people who are shot in the center of the back of the head with a 12 bore shotgun at a range of 1 inch, loaded with a single ball, (no hitler jokes please), are killed.

Statistically speaking, it's 95% more likely to have one's statements more closely examined if percentages are used. Depite this I am 100% convinced it is a valid thing to do and most (more than 50%) of formerly white people would agree with me

100% of people who graduated from high school (including ray charles) are aware of what colour they are, and 99.37 % of people do not believe george' bush's wife likes doing it with him

Stereotypes rule except where they don't, and as long as all the bets are the same size, you will end up winning if you use stereotypes

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

backwater redneck hell?

Talk about stereotypes....

stereotypes are very important and valid in 95% of cases or they wouldn't be stereotypes.

LOL saywhat this is definitely for you.....

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/06/25/winner-5/

Specifically - "White people love sounding smarter than their peers and will jump at any chance to use a statistic if it's applicable to the conversation in any way. The more absurd the statistic, the more clever and original you will seem. Stats can also hide negative feelings. If you meet a white person who wishes went to aschool that they refer to as the Harvard of the (Region where the university they attended is), they may say something like "Good thing I didn't go to an Ivy since 35% of their graduates reported being unhappy with their lives. It is considered rude to laugh and you should instead smile or throw in another appropriate statistic if handy."

I was born white but it never rains here so I am black now.. like michael jackson in reverse

also, 97.9% of people who rubbish the use of statistics have no empirical evidence to support their position

100% of people who are shot in the center of the back of the head with a 12 bore shotgun at a range of 1 inch, loaded with a single ball, (no hitler jokes please), are killed.

Statistically speaking, it's 95% more likely to have one's statements more closely examined if percentages are used. Depite this I am 100% convinced it is a valid thing to do and most (more than 50%) of formerly white people would agree with me

100% of people who graduated from high school (including ray charles) are aware of what colour they are, and 99.37 % of people do not believe george' bush's wife likes doing it with him

Stereotypes rule except where they don't, and as long as all the bets are the same size, you will end up winning if you use stereotypes

Is it your birthday Bilbo Baggins?

Edited September 4, 2008 by lancer1655

[Captain Oates 911]

Is it your birthday Bilbo Baggins?

had to google that - only women and kids would know it - 100% of hetro men don't know that reference

pretty daft name that - if it were me I would change it to Bongo Biggins

I used to thing barack obama was a silly name but i am used to it now - just like 'odinga oginga' the former cabinet minister of uganda

Did you know john mccain's middle name is 'sidney' ?????

I bet the vietnamese didnt know that or they could have broken him sooner by going

sidney, sidney, sidney, sidney, sidney, sidney, sidney, sidney, sidney, sidney through his cell door

5 minutes of that and he would be on the first plane out leaving his pals behind

[thebigyard 0]

one quick thing! before u go and say random stuff about AMERICA! y dont u critisize the own stereotype in the UK! where theres the WHITE and the minotities!!

The stereotypical American ?

Of course stereotypes are usually true or they would not exist

That includes stereotypes about Yorkshire people (me)

Having said that, the real core of what Margaret Thatcher said about there being 'no such thing as society' is that each individual and each family is a world away from the next one

I went to Lagrange Georgia, just up the road from Alabama for years with work. One of my workmates there was a really nice guy but when I said I liked tamla motown he said 'Yeah I really like that N..... music too'

It was just the way it was in Georgia and there was no kick behind the word.

Similarly, the church stuff is absolutely stifling but you can get away from it

I went to the state park here and a brass plaque explained that the ginkgo petrified forest was 20 million years old. Some rabid Jesus freak had scratched it out and mutilated the plate and written 'sinful lies'

So the stereotypes exist and are true and there are areas where you can be shot and disappear in a pick up truck or be killed for having an abortion etc etc

The stereotypes are all true but my messages is that you can avoid 90% of them and live like a European if your spouse is enlightened and not in the KKK or a wild eyed religious nut etc

And far as history is concerned forget it. The week before we came to the U.S. I took my wife to the Saxon church at Linton in Yorkshire - built in 850ad

I saw a program that was in awe over a Chicago church built 150 years ago ! Jeez my last house was built in 1725

This country is not my country. It has many advantages for me and I want to stay here but I will always be a foreigner, an alien. I used to enjoy .22 rifle shooting in Ilkley at the club. All professors and phone engineers and aerial erectors. Here it's all fat bearded guys with pickups who shoot .45 autos near the rodeo field. All they want is for some Mexican illegal to trespass in their garden so they can disembowel them. It's a different world, not my world, but I have learned to adapt without changing my attitudes to pick up trucks or racism or free health care or religion.

I joined the motorbike club and instead of genial eccentrics its all rebel flags and I am American born and.... it's not what I am used to or what I like or what I want to become.

Having said all that, the reason why I say that the stereotypes need not be too big a part of your life is that the public radio shows that there are as many, if not more, enlightened, kind, nice, deep thinking people in the US than in the UK even

They are here and you can make that kind of mini world into your world.

If you force yourself to like those parts of American culture which are repulsive to you, it won't work. So be yourself and go with what you feel about and avoid the other stuff.

It's a big country and not one society and there are plenty of people and situations to chose from

They have castration of sex offenders in Louisiana and no guns for us aliens in Washington state, firing squads in Utah and Government kidnap, torture and extraordinary rendition - the woman on the news has dazzling teeth and told me yesterday that 19 criminals were being publicly hung in Tehran. She smiled and tried to look cute while she was saying it and showing the pictures - a person from Europe does not transition immediately if they are a thinking person.... It easy to think this is an insane micky mouse land of bigots and uncaring nazis and narcissists but not all Americans are like that. Plenty are.

If you just want to bake apple pies and go to church and have kids - and are not interested in news or current affairs or politics, you can do very well in the US so long as your spouse has classy health insurance

I know I can never change anything here, and if I become a citizen it will be as one of a minority of 'liberal'persons and many of my fellow Americans will seriously dislike my views - nevertheless I can live in my minority section of American society as so many do.

Finally, the States are like different worlds - I know Georgia and I have lived in Wisconsin and Florida and Washington State. Each one with a hugely different flavour. I couldn't buy a gin and tonic on the public holiday because only the state liquor shop can sell it in case the hinjuns get their hands on firewater. I can't buy a single shot .22 target rifle, my hobby for decades - I am an alien. In Florida I can be legally shot if I knock on a door for water and the resident fears that I might do them harm. etc etc

Even which side of the state matters - in Washington state in the west is Microsoft and Boeing and gays and illegals - here on the East its Republicans and guns and rodeos and church

I am still here ! Been to the UK one week since last November ! I have a super house and a brand new motorbike (Suzuki 1250 bandit actually) 3.5 litre luxury car - I bought the lot for the few pesos that the US dollar has become. The sun shines and my wife has a good job with good health cover for me. I have great credit cards and bank accounts and shares and mutual funds. I passed my car test and motorbike test and I have done all of this after my 60th birthday. I am am a foreigner in a cruel, harsh, vulgar, loud, unfair , 'every man for himself' , neo-con foreign land, but I am doing ok !

I have even found a beer I like

They don't like 'partners' here but 'pardners' are ok - get it pardner ? The flags have gold embroidery and golden eagles on the top. Massed ranks of huge flags almost identical to the nazis rallies apart from the flag itself - Rudolph Hess would have approved. I see Nuremberg and the 'Triumph of the wills' every day but I don't even notice it now...

So my message is - believe the stereotypes - they exist, I have seen them, I have spoken with them. The TV preachers say if you don't give them money then someone in your family will get cancer. The TV stations allow them to say that.

Consumer protection is non existent but most traders play the game. Trial by TV happens every day to arrested persons and people who are mere suspects are named as 'scum' on the telly even before they are charged. Don't believe that the US consists only of these stereotypes - there are scientists and atheists and socialists and quiet gentle thinking feeling people who abhor torture and racism and just all sorts of wonderful people. Be prepared for both.

I am appalled by much of US society and reassured and impressed by the rest of it , and quietly pleased that I have managed to cope so far

I am sure a lot of people will want to shout me down for a lot of what I have said here buts it's an honest summary of how I perceive this country I live in, what I have found, what I have observed.... I watch and keenly observe every day.

I am not sure if I want to be a citizen one day. How can a country evolve it's culture without minority ideas coming in from outside ? If I feel so strongly about the horrible things here, and if I think the kind and thoughtful minority should be supported, then surely it's my duty to become a citizen and to speak out for enlightenment. That would be the only basis on which I would become a citizen but I am still not sure as many of my new countrymen will hate my views for sure and isolating yourself and putting yourself up for social crucifixion takes Jesus type strength

[Captain Oates 911]

one quick thing! before u go and say random stuff about AMERICA! y dont u critisize the own stereotype in the UK! where theres the WHITE and the minotities!!

What's are 'minotities' ? - is it those things the Americans can't look at without turning into a pillar of salt.

Janet Jackson etc ?

Eh pilgrim ?

Did you graduate ? If dynamite was brains, you wouldn't have enough to blow your hat off.

If your reading capabilities were up to it, you would have read all the negatives I posted about the UK. My main point was that the Brits can take criticism, and even join in with it, because we don't have a well deserved inferiority complex such as semi - literates like you. Now go book into night school and get an education and some computer skills too

Jeez - trailer dwellers crawl out of the wodwork everywhere with their short, jumbled, badly spelled grunts

Go wave a flag nitwit

[Widge 0]

When I first heard the statistic about the number of Americans not possessing a passport I too was shocked but then thought about it and it kind of made sense. When you consider they can travel the 50 states, Canada, Mexico and a few other places I can't recall without any need for a passport why would the majority of the country even need one.

Then take into account the cost of travel to anywhere foreign from America requiring a passport, the average holiday entitlement and it then could surprise you the number who actually DO have a passport.

[Big Papa Zone 93]

Jeez - trailer dwellers crawl out of the wodwork everywhere with their short, jumbled, badly spelled grunts

Sorry Alan, I'm not usually one to highlight people's misspelling, but given the nature of this particular rant, I'm afraid I simply couldn't resist!

[NickyMcMillan 0]

When I first heard the statistic about the number of Americans not possessing a passport I too was shocked but then thought about it and it kind of made sense. When you consider they can travel the 50 states, Canada, Mexico and a few other places I can't recall without any need for a passport why would the majority of the country even need one.

Then take into account the cost of travel to anywhere foreign from America requiring a passport, the average holiday entitlement and it then could surprise you the number who actually DO have a passport.

Now that US citizens are required to have passports to go into Canada/Mexico/Caribbean, there has been a glut of US citizens applying for passports.

#######...posting under my husband's account again. I must really work this out....

[Captain Oates 911]

When I first heard the statistic about the number of Americans not possessing a passport I too was shocked but then thought about it and it kind of made sense. When you consider they can travel the 50 states, Canada, Mexico and a few other places I can't recall without any need for a passport why would the majority of the country even need one.

Then take into account the cost of travel to anywhere foreign from America requiring a passport, the average holiday entitlement and it then could surprise you the number who actually DO have a passport.

This is exactly what I mean - Americans dont realise that it's necessary to travel in order to experience other cultures !

They think that a drive from Minnesota to Milwaukee makes em citizens of the world !

I have been all over america and guess what - it's the SAME country. Apart from regional differences, it's not the big wide world - and taking 7 days to drive from seattle to florida is less eye opening that travelling 90 minutes from dover to calais !

Many americans, especially working class americans, only visit other countries when they are going there to kill people

Americans think it's expensive to travel because they are totally lost in the world and don't know how to travel cheaply.

They all go to london and pay 500 dollars a night for a hotel and 50 dollars for a meal, when they could be in a more beautiful region, in an economical band b and eating beautiful fish and chips for 5 dollars (with a cup of tea and a slice of bread and butter)

They dont know !

Sarah Palin, very possibly the next president, only just got a passport a short while ago ! She went to Kuwait via Germany and back pretty quickly

How can someone be president of the US if they have never been to the UK even ?????

This is blind ignorance of the highest order. How can the US be a power for good when ignorance is excused and even celebrated ?

An american girl came up to me in york and said she was going to norway the next day - then she asked me if norway was in the north of england like york.

From that moment on I realised the mountain of ignorance that I was up against

[Captain Oates 911]

Jeez - trailer dwellers crawl out of the wodwork everywhere with their short, jumbled, badly spelled grunts

Sorry Alan, I'm not usually one to highlight people's misspelling, but given the nature of this particular rant, I'm afraid I simply couldn't resist!

There is a difference between a typo and a spelling mistake

When someone says 'u' instead of 'you', its not a typo. Oh I know its lazy text language, but the language has taken 1,500 years to put together and I don't like to see it destroyed by neanderthals with extreme nationalist mind sets no better than one troup of chimpanzees confronting another