Let's post in this thread all the things we love (like?) about Americans and the United States of America.
Positive things only. Leave the USA-bashing for the other 99.9% of babble threads. 
Happy Fourth of July!
Sat, 2009-07-04 00:20
#1
Happy Fourth of July!
Sat, 2009-07-04 00:21
#2
I'll go first; there is nothing in this world so breath-taking as seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time.
Sat, 2009-07-04 01:22
#3
An accident of geography, which should be in Mexico.
Sat, 2009-07-04 04:13
#4
Cueball
I like Americans.
Sat, 2009-07-04 06:12
#5
Me too. :) Happy Independence Day!
Sat, 2009-07-04 07:16
#6
Thank you all. 
Sat, 2009-07-04 07:44
#7
They got rid of Bush and his gang.
Sat, 2009-07-04 08:08
#8
Most of my closest friendships are with Americans.
The things I like about America are:
- the beauty that is Arizona
- the way they try to fight a system far more corrupt than ours
- Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich
- road trips!
- Deerfield Beach in Florida
Sat, 2009-07-04 08:42
#9
remind
Pfffft, what a freaking weird thread, the fourth of July for the USA is no damn different than Canada Day, and perhaps worse, but yet here we have people not mentioning a word about it, as they did for Canada Day.
Sat, 2009-07-04 09:05
#10
Boom Boom
I very reluctantly wished my many friends south of the border a happy Independence Day, and I say "reluctantly" because Amerika continues to piss me off. 
Sat, 2009-07-04 09:19
#11
No one's stopping you from starting a thread, remind. :)
Sat, 2009-07-04 09:30
#12
The American Revolution. It inspired the French Revolution and other democratic revolutions around the world.
Sat, 2009-07-04 09:34
#13
Maysie
Pfffft, what a freaking weird thread, the fourth of July for the USA is no damn different than Canada Day, and perhaps worse, but yet here we have people not mentioning a word about it, as they did for Canada Day.
remind, I agree. I was sad to see this thread on TAT but I will respect the OP. Except for this post.
Everything good I would say about the US would be about the geography. Which isn't really about the US since the geography would be there no matter who is living/squatting on the land.
Oh, I like Cheez Whiz. They invented that didn't they? Spreadable cheeze chemicals, right? Mmmm.
Sat, 2009-07-04 09:37
#14
Sven
- road trips!
There is something romantic and liberating about road trips, no?! Not knowing where you're going to sleep at night or who you'll meet along the way. I got a call recently from one of my nieces...she called me from Colorado while on a solo road trip. She had no idea where she was going, how long she'd be gone, what she would do, or who or what she would see.
_______________________________________
[b]Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!![/b]
Sat, 2009-07-04 09:55
#15
Boom Boom
Amerika pisses me off, but there are things I like about it. Route 66 and all the amazing diners along that route. I love New Mexico - I used to vacation there (also Arizona, but it's too damned hot there now). Places in the USA where I also loved vacationing included parts of Vermont; New Hampshire (especially Rye Beach on the ocean where we used to have a cottage); Winchester, Virginia (birthplace of Patsy Cline and home to their freakin' weird annual Apple Blossom Festival which is a homage to white bread Amerika); and hiking the Appalachian Trail over the Blue Ridge mountains in West Virginia (I was visiting Harper's Ferry at the time) which is simply awesome. It's an amazing country but hopelessly stuck in an arrogant and imperialist frame of mind.
Sat, 2009-07-04 12:24
#16
Mount Rushmore.
Sat, 2009-07-04 12:31
#17
There is something romantic and liberating about road trips, no?!
Not in Kandahar.
Sat, 2009-07-04 13:34
#18
Is today 'really' Independence Day in the USA?
The revolution ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Doesn't Independence usually start when victory has been complete?
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ratified by the Congress of the Confederation on January 14, 1784 and by the King of Great Britain on April 9, 1784 (the ratification documents were exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784), formally ended the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America, which had rebelled against British rule starting in 1775.
So that means the US is only 225 not 233. Right or wrong? or????
Regardless Happy July 4th...
Sat, 2009-07-04 13:49
#19
Let's post in this thread all the things we love (like?) about Americans and the United States of America.
They invaded Canada in 1775 and 1812. They threatened to again in 1845. Many Canadians feared with good reason that the Yankees would turn their eyes northward in 1865 after disposing of the Confederate rebels.
They failed every time.
Sat, 2009-07-04 13:50
#20
remind
When have they not failed?
Sat, 2009-07-04 14:54
#21
Cueball
Mount Rushmore.
All of South Dakota, land of nickel and dime tourist attractions, from robo-land to Dinosaur land. If there is a rock over 2m high, they will hang a sign on it and make it the basis of a theme park. Road signs, the Badlands, and most of all Wall Drug.
Sat, 2009-07-04 16:05
#22
Wall Drug is amazing from a marketing perspective. I went there in 1974. It's just a store, but it's so hyped (free ice water!!!) that it draws tourists.
Not all of South Dakota is like the Black Hills, though. In early 1977 I went to Britton, S.D. with my 16-and-under hockey team, the Saskatchewan provincial champs, to play the South Dakota 18-and-under state champs. The family I billetted with treated us great, as did the whole town. We also played the team, from Huron, S.D., that won the championship later that year One of Charlie's Angels (the one who replaced Farrah Fawcett) came from Huron. We didn't meet her.
Sat, 2009-07-04 16:15
#23
N.Beltov
Above all, it is the American working class - a class that has produced the fabulous real wealth of that country - that babblers should honour today. And their neglected and forgotten radicals ... names like Tom Paine who authored "Common Sense" and was the first person to use the expression "the United States of America", and African-American Paul Robeson, peacenik and artist extrodinaire, and many, many others.
You fight the beast of imperialism, in his belly, and we salute you!
Sat, 2009-07-04 17:01
#24
US universities. Nowhere else is there anything that is comparable to the intellectual depth and diversity found there.
Sat, 2009-07-04 17:01
#25
Boom Boom
...and hiking the Appalachian Trail
Speaking of the Appalachians... A President Breaks Hearts in Appalachia
by: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
excerpt:
If ever an issue deserved President Obama's promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day - the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly - to blow up Appalachia's mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains - encompassing about a million acres - buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region's air and water.
Sat, 2009-07-04 17:21
#26
Depth - yeah.
Diversity? Tell Norman Finkelstein.
Sat, 2009-07-04 17:29
#27
I would have told Norman Finkelstein to try and get an article published in a peer-reviewed journal before applying for tenure.
Sat, 2009-07-04 17:34
#28
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
Sat, 2009-07-04 17:44
#29
I would have told Norman Finkelstein to try and get an article published in a peer-reviewed journal before applying for tenure.
Do you actually have no shame? Or are you merely ignorant of the [b]stated[/b] reasons for denial of tenure to Finkelstein? I'm sure you would have no problem in a U.S. university, but that's another matter.
In early 2007 the DePaul University Political Science department voted nine to three, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee five to zero, in favor of giving Finkelstein tenure. The three opposing faculty members subsequently filed a minority report opposing tenure, supported by the Dean of the College, Chuck Suchar. Suchar stated [b]he opposed tenure because Finkelstein's "personal and reputation demeaning attacks on Alan Dershowitz, Benny Morris, and the holocaust authors Eli Wiesel and Jerzy Kosinski" were inconsistent with DePaul's "Vincentian" values.[/b][40] In June 2007, a 4-3 vote by DePaul University's Board on Promotion and Tenure (a faculty board), affirmed by the university's president, the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, denied Finkelstein tenure.[41][42]
The university denied that Alan Dershowitz, who had been criticized for actively campaigning against Finkelstein's tenure, played any part in this decision.[42] At the same time,[b] the university denied tenure to international studies lecturer Mehrene Larudee, a strong supporter of Finkelstein, despite unanimous support from her department, the Personnel Committee and the Dean[/b].[43][44] Finkelstein stated that he would engage in civil disobedience if attempts were made to bar him from teaching his students.[45][46]
The Faculty Council later affirmed the right of Professors Finkelstein and Larudee to appeal, which a university lawyer said was not possible. Council President Anne Bartlett said she was "'terribly concerned' correct procedure was not followed".[47] DePaul's faculty association considered taking no confidence votes in administrators, including the president, because of the tenure denials.[48] In a statement issued upon Finkelstein's resignation, [b]DePaul called him "a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher.[/b]"[4] Dershowitz expressed outrage at the compromise and this statement in particular, saying that the university had "traded truth for peace."[2][3]
In June 2007, after two weeks of protests, DePaul students staged a sit-in and hunger strike in support of both professors denied tenure. The American Association of University Professors also sent a letter to the university’s president stating: [b]"It is entirely illegitimate for a university to deny tenure to a professor out of fear that his published research … might hurt a college’s reputation"[/b] and that The association has "[b]explicitly rejected collegiality as an appropriate criterion for evaluating faculty members[/b]".[49]
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein#Tenure_denial_and_resign...
So Stephen, where did you see the mention of lack of peer-reviewed papers?
No need to reply.
Sat, 2009-07-04 17:46
#30
Just that it would have been much harder to make that kind of a call if he had a few peer-reviewed articles in his CV.
Sat, 2009-07-04 17:52
#31
Cueball
American universities with few exceptions are notoriously overated, not to mention politcized and over priced. Bang for the buck Canadian Universities are far superior. The big advantage of an American university is tapping into the social networks of power and privilege provided to the American elite, who use their power to promote a very glamorized picture of the quality of the Intelligencia in the US and its attendent institutions. Ivy league schools deserve their reputation as the playground of sons and daughters of the pampered elite geared to churning out "true believers" whose futures in the halls of power are guaranteed, in a process not unlike that in the USSR where the intelllectually stultified rehashed Leninist orthodoxy as members of the Komsomol, and then moved into the corridors of business through the state managed institutions of "higher indoctrination": Arena's of intellectual exploration and free thinking criticism, they most certainly are not.
I say that as much as I like Americans, the people, without reservation.
Sat, 2009-07-04 18:28
#32
That would explain all those Nobels won by US-based researchers - many won by non-Americans who moved there to better advance their research projects. And why the US is still by far the preferred destination of international grad students.
Oh. It doesn't.
Sat, 2009-07-04 19:07
#33
Hiphop, Malcolm X, the Wobblies, the Pacific Coast Highway... the great tradition of radical singer-songwriters/poets/story-telling fellow-travelling troubadours like Utah Phillips, Ani DiFranco, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Phil Ochs, etc.
The big advantage of an American university is tapping into the social networks of power and privilege provided to the American elite, who use their power to promote a very glamorized picture of the quality of the Intelligencia in the US and its attendent institutions. Ivy league schools deserve their reputation as the playground of sons and daughters of the pampered elite geared to churning out "true believers"...
I don't disagree, but a lot of this hyperbole and generalization. There are few academics or schools of thought outside of the US that can compare in some fields and subfields of social sciences, economics and humanities, for instance. The quality of the science coming out of these institutions should be judged by the science itself, not just the backgrounds of the scientists.
Sat, 2009-07-04 20:32
#34
Tigana
:X
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000LRILNK/ref=asc_df_B000LRILNK8...
Dijon mustard, grown in Canada
Sat, 2009-07-04 20:34
#35
The entertainment value of their educational system. I was included today in an email from an American acquaintence wishing everyone in a little group of ours a happy 4th of July. A picture of the Statue of Liberty was included, with the sender reminding everyone that it was the gift provided by their forefathers. Of course, I couldn't help but to inquire in my reply to all..."wow, I had no idea, you're all French?!!" I did include a link to the history of the statue, figuring it was the least I could do in wishing them well on their day.
Sat, 2009-07-04 20:34
#36
Cueball
That would explain all those Nobels won by US-based researchers - many won by non-Americans who moved there to better advance their research projects. And why the US is still by far the preferred destination of international grad students.
Oh. It doesn't.
That would be explained by the huge sums of money pumped into research and development. Without the necessary funding researchers outside of the US eductational system are unfairly handicapped. This fact says nothing about the standards of scientific inquirey or the ability of individual scientists. The bomb was designed primarily by European scientists and funded and built by the US government. Robert Oppenhiemer is the only really notable home grown sceintist on the Manhattan project. Certainly, there is little evidence that American scientists can not achieve, for they certainly have, but priding oneself on achievements that are almost entirely the result of the fact that the US has extraordinary sums of money to spent. You corrolary point about scientists moving to the US to take advantage of US government largesse only confirms this point, since the bulk of their foundational theoretical knowledge was established elsewhere. This certainly does not recommend the quality of the US educational system, in toto.
In anycase, rather than argue with a grade 10 drop out about the merits of the US educational system, why are you not otherwise absorbed experiencing the depth and diversity one can no doubt find on the listserve of one America's more prestigious post-secondary indoctrinational institutions? One has to wonder why you spend an inordinate amount of your on-line time chatting on Babble, which is almost exclusively filled with people who are at best graduates of Canada's "inferior" academic institutions, some without any post-secondary education whatsoever.
Or are you just slumming it?
Sat, 2009-07-04 21:06
#37
remind
US universities. Nowhere else is there anything that is comparable to the intellectual depth and diversity found there.
Just a bit of sentence revision needs to occur and a addition example.
US universities. Nowhere else is there anything that is comparable to the intellectual depth of evil and diversity of its applications found anwhere else in the world.
We need only look at; Kissenger, Karl Rove, Richard Pearle, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, the Bushes, the Clintons, the Doles, the Rockefellers, Allen Stanford, Warren Buffet, the Walton family, the Koch family, and many others in their highly educated camps, to see how deep the intellectual depth of evil is and how diversely they apply it.
That basically no one challenges them, who are the so called educated elite, is a testament to how shallow their intellectual depth is, and how lacking in diversity they are. They too, all hope to make the Forbes list and apparently desire global hegemony.
Sat, 2009-07-04 21:14
#38
Maysie
Slumberjack: 
Sat, 2009-07-04 21:20
#39
That would be explained by the huge sums of money pumped into research and development. Without the necessary funding researchers outside of the US eductational system are unfairly handicapped.
So the explanation is that the US is willing to spend money on research, and others aren't. Since the knowledge generated by that largesse is diffused throughout the world at essentially zero price, that amounts to an extravagant gift to the rest of the world. We could at least say thank you.
One has to wonder why you spend an inordinate amount of your on-line time chatting on Babble, which is almost exclusively filled with people who are at best graduates of Canada's "inferior" academic institutions, some without any post-secondary education whatsoever.
Or are you just slumming it?
Call it nostalgia, loyalty, or habit. babble is where I first started to interact on the internet.
Sun, 2009-07-05 02:00
#40
Cueball
So the explanation is that the US is willing to spend money on research, and others aren't. Since the knowledge generated by that largesse is diffused throughout the world at essentially zero price, that amounts to an extravagant gift to the rest of the world. We could at least say thank you.
Saying thank you for returning a share of the money ripped off through the imperial corprate endeavours protected by the military might of the US armed forces is pushing it a bit, don't you think? Or are you suggesting the wealth of the USA is all homegrown? Some think an appology would be more appropriate. But you are right, most would just as well accept a return of the money, in some form or another, with or without appended missives of gratitude, either way.
Either way, you are tacitly accepting that the strength of US universities is really about the vast resources available for research, as opposed to the "depth and diversity" of the institutions of US higher indoctrination. Agreat bulk of the talent, is indeed imported as you point out.
Sun, 2009-07-05 02:53
#41
N.Beltov
Actually, Professor Gordon's tendentious remarks are pretty amusing, ... considering the extreme lack of diversity of views in his own chosen field of Economics. Leaving aside the well-documented silencing of foreign policy views that are critical of Israel, the field of Economics has been characterized by an orthodoxy that would rival Uncle Joe Stalin. The idolatry of the market remains virtually unchallenged and buckets of research and other monies goes to those who parrot such views. However, efforts by the (mostly) silenced minority are not without success ...
Sun, 2009-07-05 09:39
#42
Sven
Positive things only. Leave the USA-bashing for the other 99.9% of babble threads.
That is psychologically impossible for some (as evidenced above).
_______________________________________
[b]Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!![/b]
Sun, 2009-07-05 13:47
#43
Lard Tunderin Jeezus
...good thing Sven's around to monitor them canuckistan commies.
Sun, 2009-07-05 14:00
#44
That is psychologically impossible for some (as evidenced above).
Canada Day didn't see all that much of a jingostic rise around here either. Hooray for consistency I'd say. Now there's something to celebrate.
Sun, 2009-07-05 14:39
#45
I went to a barbecue on Dominion Day, and just about everyone else there was either an immigrant or in Canada on a work visa. My kids, the hosts' boy and I were pretty well the only people without a foreign accent.
Anyway, as one couple left to go home, one of them said "Happy Canada Day." I didn't think that was called for.
Sun, 2009-07-05 15:32
#46
The Ramones, Iggy Pop, MC5, Patti Smith, REM, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Velvet Underground.
Sun, 2009-07-05 15:35
#47
N.Beltov
Hooray for the growth of radical economics in the USA!
Sun, 2009-07-05 18:07
#48
Had to do a double take....for a split second there I saw Velvet Revolver. Whheew.
Sun, 2009-07-05 18:59
#49
Sven
Anyway, as one couple left to go home, one of them said "Happy Canada Day." I didn't think that was called for.
Yeah, if I was in Saudi Arabia, China or some other country outside of the US and Canada and a host said, "Happy X Day" (a local national holiday), yeah, I'd be frightfully offended and think, "Well, sheesh, that was certainly uncalled for!!"
_______________________________________
[b]Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!![/b]
Sun, 2009-07-05 19:12
#50
You missed the context of that one Sven, maybe. Anyways, diversity of free thought....breathe it in.
Sun, 2009-07-05 19:36
#51
No matter which Canadian web site I go to it's always the same....
Smug Canadians with an enormous chip on their shoulder, exhibiting intense jealousy of the USA and demonstrating a national inferiority complex, ignoring the fact that the US 'walks the walk' while the Canadians remain in the shadows as under achievers doing little more than criticising and throwing shix balls at the people who get things done.