So recently with this whole anti-terror, I mean, anti-bush war (among other little things) that's been going on, it looks like the American reputation has taken a bit of damage. I watch CNN for my 'southern' news, so you might see that bias (although I'm trying to be neutral). when I see Americans on the news, they just don't look as calm and collected and powerful as before. this iraqi war (I mean, Extended Military Operation), the OMG HORRIBLE housing/credit market, the weakest dollar in 34+ years and a few other things seem to be causing quite a frazzle.

what are some other takes on this? (I'm most curious to see what American's think) and also, what's the reciprocal? how does Canada/Europe/etc look from the American p.o.v.?

Pretty much all of the world hates America now. When I say America, I don't mean the people of America. I mean the general idea that America has of itself. For one, it seems to have appointed itself as the Worlds Police. Do as I say not as I do, type of thing.

Also, America has a HUGE image problem now. You need a new image. You need someone like Bill Clinton up there with a nice smile & charm. Not the currently appointed idiot that you have.

Part of changing the worlds opinion would be to close down Camp X-RAY ASAP. That is doing no good - you break all the rules in the Geneva convention. Yet you march into Iraq, because of "WMDs" & and that Saddam is a horrible dictator but then magically secure oil fields/refineries first? Not to mention the whole war is illegal.

You moan at Iran for wanting nukes, but you yourself have how many? Who the fuck are you to decide who has what and who doesn't?

Also, forgive me for saying this. But a good half of your population seems as dumb as shit. You let your government, SCARE you into doing want they want. Should you dare question "why? who? when? what?" All they do is scream "national security" and you start jumping. I recently saw an advert for Hillarily Clinton and basically the advert was trying to scare up votes, by playing the old "national security" card.

I have been frequently portrayed as being anti-american. I am not. I can't be. I am not like that. I really do think all humans are created equal and that means Europeans, Americans, extremists and terrorists alike. We all still are human and have become into what we are by education or our personal evolution instead of through creation.

But I am anti-american as well. I am anti the american policy of the last few years. Your administration is blowing hot nor cold. It is labelling lots of situations as being "just not done", while the administration itself is oh so guilty of commiting the very same crimes they are so against verbally. It is not in the least sincere to the virtues it preaches. It is not practicing at all what it preaches. Be it a colleague or your boss, a relative, a friend or you, as a country, it just pisses me off big-time that one can be so disloyal to himself as to forbid others what he is doing himself. It is very much that attitude as well which ticks of extremists.

some examples:
"WMD are just not allowed." All fine, but you got a stockpile of WMD yourselves. You even use a "new" WMD to scare off the adversary in a war based on the pretext of preventing WMD spreading. (MOAB)
You say "elections should be democratical", yet one of the countries where elections have been widely judged as being one of the most democratical in the region, you label the elected party as terrorist and as an "unworthy correspondent" (HAMAS) or the other way around. (Russia)
You say "not guilty until proven so", but you keep prisoners jailed for years on end without an objective trial (Guantanamo, the notorious Iraqi prison, Sadam himself)
You sign the Geneva Convention and react against countries acting against it, but yet you allow measures specifically stated as inhuman yourselves (waterboarding).
You dissallow states to pursue nuclear technology - be it weaponry, but you pursue new technologies yourselves (mini-nukes)
You avenge your deaths, because "they started", but you condemn other parties doing the same (Palestina)
You go to war based on "pre-emptive strike", but you do not agree with others doing so.
You increase your defense budget, while it already is the biggest in the world by a multiplier of the rest, but you react defiantly when other countries do the same (China)

I could still find (quite a few) other examples if I keep on digging, but this is how the last few years have changed the world's perception of America IMHO. In fact not a week has past in the last few years when I didn't get confronted with fragments supporting that idea.

as for the weak dollar: blame your president. His approach to budget was a disaster which you will have to recover from for some years to come.

Imagine if tomorrow we Americans pulled all of our aid, financial and otherwise. Wouldn't be a pretty sight.

Love us or hate us, most of the world needs us in one way or another. Just as we need the rest of the world. Hating America seems to be a very popular pasttime but if we were to disappear tomorrow the world would be a totally different place one I'm quite sure I wouldn't want to live in. Interesting that you'll find ungodly amounts of Anti-American posts and threads thorughout the internet yet I can't rememeber coming across a single anti-canada or anti-egypt post. Maybe I'm not looking but lets be honest its only human nature to try to tear down the one that's on top. And thsts US.

See this is exactly what I'm talking about. The ONLY thing that concerns the rest of the world is the US Market, which is about to go into recession. As for the rest, pull out for all we care. You have nothing we want, anything you make. China can do it quicker and on a bigger scale.

here goes. a thread is posted by an american asking reasons. you give them your opinion on it. it does not read pretty and you get slapped around the face with something completely irrelevant to the topic: aid.

a topic which makes me remember: the us gives aid to the most powerful mid-eastern state (Israel), but support that country blocking funds belonging to the palestinians themselves, while these slip ever more into poverty. you even had an Israeli official saying "we'll bring the holocaust on them" ffs!



it is absolutely normal man! there is no other state in the world (except for maybe the combined EU states the last few years) which is so absolutely void of honesty in what it says. The states mantra on about the same thing time and again: "You can't, we can". The US is hypocrite! Extremely so...

You mention canada or egypt: tell me where they are hypocrite. I am certainly looking forward to a canadian example (I imagine you can dig up egyptian ones). Where did Canada say "you can not do that", while they themselves were?!

And if you find a canadian or egyptian or chinese or whatever example, then just think about what you yourself says: "YOU are the one that's on top". You are in the spotlight. And to be hypocrite like the American administration is, just pisses people off. They - and anywho - should be leading by example.

I don't know how many United States residents are on this board, much less this post.

America includes Canada Mexico and South America. Lets be more precise. Its not fair to those nations to be lumped into the clusterfuck that has become our nation. But I understand for the sake of discussion and reference, people refer to the US as America. So be it.

You are 100% correct in saying that there is anti-American sentimate out there. I just hope and pray that the populations of the world know that this is all the act of a wackjob president who had some rigged elections to get in.

Eygpt, a muslim nation is second in the list of people recieving foreign aid. As for Israel and Palestine, especially in light of the recent tragedy, I have this to say.
When INNOCENT palestinians die, there is not a massive celebration on the streets of Israel. And that is one of the basic reasons for the the unfortunate prejuidices of the world. And I'm not going to start the topic of the anti-jewish sentiment that has been in the world for centuries. Besides, this is off topic.

As far as US citizens 'standing up' to the US government. Very FEW people have the ability to do so. Yes, we live in a nation of free speech, where our comics can satire the president. I know in other nations, that would be a death sentence. Taking the poor economic shape of our average citizen at this point in time, people can't afford to stand up and fight. In addition, under the laws of the Patriot Act and all other corrupt illegal practices of the President, anyone who speaks out will quickly be shut up. I'm half expecting some Secret Service at my door for just this post.

As for the Iraq war. There is almost unified agreement in this country about the state of Iraq. It was wrong to start. But the asshole President had personal reasons, hence the war. It has been a global catastrophe. Bush totally fucked up.

I do agree with the setniment that the person on top is the first one to get knocked. You can look at any scenario, but the top dog gets the most shots taken at it. USA, Microsoft, etc.

I just can't wait for this election. We can put a chimpanzee into office, and it would cause less damage than the retarded monkey in office at the moment.

"I just can't wait for this election. We can put a chimpanzee into office, and it would cause less damage than the retarded monkey in office at the moment."

And I still can't believe the morons in this country that couldn't see this from his first term in office!

I don't blame the rest of the world as regarding us as incompetent imbeciles! We have gotten to the point of being the ONLY country that could mess up another countries wet dream!!

Unfortunately, many people voted for their primary 'causes'. ie: anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, religious guided president. For many, especially in the populous, conservative middle America, those are important things.

yeah. Who is going to educate them? The world is more than their farm. (haha. what a stereotypical expression. excuse me for doing so.)

There have been a few things that I've been against towards Bush but this tops it all... http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/08/bus...e.ap/index.html Umm.. yeah, so torture is ok... if it's helped in the past... right.. you fumb fucker. You are the worst president ever. Your views on the world and how to run things are just plain stupid. I don't think there is a right and wrong way to be president, but there is a very stupid way and obviously Bush is not qualified for this position based on this decision he just made. I think you sir, are a dumbass.

Just my little rant to add to this mess lol.

lol the american national anthem might one day change to "me against the world" funny but very sad too :/

In God We Trust - says it all really. Thats when the US started to go downhill. When they changed their motto from "from many, one" to "In God We Trust".

I remember Bush saying that God "talked" to him and asked him to declare war on the 'Axis of Evil'. Gee, now that I think about it, wasn't Osama acting on Gods word? Damn, long lost brothers right?

With all due respect, I highly disagree. The people who came over on the Mayflower were Puritans. The entire nation at its founding was much more religious than it stands today. Even 50 years ago, people were much more religious.

And I am not a religious person, I am agnostic at best.

The problem isn't the religious beliefs of people or leaders, but actually the greed and corporate money being pushed into government. Go see how many contracts were given to Haliburton in the last 8 years. After Katrina, rather than give the contracts to LOCAL businesses who could have hired local people and infused the local destroyed economy with money and support, Bush *cough* FEMA gave the contracts to guess who....

Exxon is reporting RECORD PROFITS every quarter, but gas prices have never been higher! Something seems a bit off, no?

Aside from money, you have a political system at the moment where the President and his idiotic beliefs go unchecked due to the powers he put in place. And when he put them in place, his Republican pals just let it happen. Now, we have a bunch of Democrats who are nothing but pansies and don't do anything against him, but don't have enough influence due to overrule anything he does.

The biggest problem in my opinion is the greed of the people in office. Bush doesn't care about the average person. I'm not exactly sure what his motivations are. It seems he has a reverse Midas touch. Rather than everything he touches turning to gold, he turns everything he touches into shit. I can't think of a single successful program that has been instigated by that retarded monkey.


EDIT:
In regards to your comment about Bush and Osama talking to god. Bush yes, has claimed such. Osama didn't attack us because God/Allah told him to. He did it for many other reasons. As for ongoing attacks, its due to our place in Iraq. Cough *Haliburton*

you know what I think is worth mentioning right now?

that is that we retarded "rest of the world" have been saying what dk says for years now. Remember the endless discussion I had with you guys about bush not being a good choice. how the hell is it possible that the "rest of the world" knew that better than you?! is it because your press sucks? because your public opinion is formed through channels which are controlled by the very same people pulling the string behind the lawmakers in the white house?!

Brains makes a good point. But I don't think its the full press. And one thing to note is ALL press, no matter from where, has a bias. They may not make it as obvious, but it is there. And anytime someone sees something they dont like, they can throw out the term press bias.

But there are some clear violators. Fox News doesnt even make an attempt to hide their feelings. They may as well rename themselves to the GOP network.

And the same applies to all issues around the world. I've watched international news, and read international papers. And you can often tell the feelings of the writer or press from the way they spin something.

2 examples...
Fox News makes it a point to talk about Barak Obama, and how it sounds like Osama. Then they often say "Barak Hussein Obasa..ooops, we mean Obama". They play the media.

Another example is the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Depending who writes the article, and their feelings, it is a different story. One the same incident, a news source will focus on an innocent child victim of an attack, and the other just spits out numbers. It all depends who the writer favors.

dk, you are intelligeble; I like that a lot. You seem to be an atypical american, who knows how to assess his country by its strengths as well as its weaknesses.

your are correct that all media have their bias, although I'd like to call it "orientation". Media are sensationalist (most popular ones bearing right) or comprehensible (bearing left).

i have the impression that most news outlets in the us struck a balance in between, where they appear to be comprehensible, but in fact are sensational... ... and are having an agenda while doing so.

I like the belgian news channels and read up on bbc daily. the example you gave about the israeli palestinian conflict: I read about fatal (i.e. having a fatal outcome, having deaths) offenses from Israel (almost) weekly. I read about fatal offenses from Palestine... err... about a handful over the last year. The 1-death qassam rocket late february and the school shooting early march being noteworthy.

Thank you for your comments. I like to stay abreast of ongoings. (hehe..breast..j/k).

As for the Israeli/Palestinian thing. I don't want this to be a debate about that topic..but in that example, the media is serving its bias.

To say x persons killed on PA side, where is on the Israeli side, only 1 is a very narrow perspective. Just because no one was killed was a failure of the terrorists part. Their rockets were INTENDED to kill, but missed. But with news twisting stuff, it never sounds that way. And just because they missed doesnt mean Israel should just say, oh, no one this time. we wont respond.

Anyway..back to Bush and America. I hope most foreigners realize that Americans for the most part are not ignorant hicks as depicted by our asshat president. But unfortuantely, the ignorant and uneducated, or those who think narrowly dominate, and rather than see many things, they see one issue, and vote for it.

Most people dont support the president or the war, but liked his stance on issues. (abortion, gay marriage, science, etc.)
I'm headed to Washington DC now, so I won't be responding for some time.

dk. shame you are not able to respond.

about pa/is (you are mod, you can split the topic ): it might be a narrow perspective, but it is not entirely. It is hard fact as well! i see a democratically elected party being outcasted by the world's community (not only the states are to blame here). I see extra-judicial killings monthly. I see new settlements being approved half-yearly (used to be monthly). I see embargos monthly. I see IS -> PA intrusions yearly (used to be quarterly). All of these (except for the settlements - which is "just" a slap in the face of the peace process) ARE intended to kill from the Israeli side. The Israeli rockets KILL more often than not. The qassam is a poor man's reaction to all of that IS aggression. The Gaza strip is at ITS WORST since 1967! How can the international community treat millions of peoples the way it is doing now? How can Israel treat its neighbours that way?! How come an Israeli official mentioned "we'll bring the holocaust on them" for fuck's sake AND get away with that?! (although spin doctors translated it to something else). What fucking world are we living in? Where a group of people were offered a safe haven because they were targetted during one of the world's worst wars and then allow that same group to approach a minority in similar ways? How can that group wake up in the morning and look at itself?!

waw. pisses me off again.

I am glad you mentioned "most" Americans though. The dude got elected after all. That means he had to have the majority - unless we discuss about his first election all over again...

You people are having so much fun bashing and bitching about the U.S. that I just hate to rain on your parade...


Funny... I watch FOX News almost every day, and I don't remember this happening. Most likely it was some pundit that made that made a mistake like that... Or Ted Kennedy.

You liberals are always bashing FOX News, when in reality FOX News is the most fair and balanced news organization around. They're the only channel that gives people from all sides fair a chance to voice their opinion, and the libs can't stand that.

As for the war in Iraq, we have gone over that time and time and time again. Was it the right thing to do? Hell yes! Saddam was a brutal thug that killed and tortured his own people. And I mean REAL torture, not all this "you hurt my feelings" crap that people have been complaining about. We should have no regrets about taking him out of power. He needed to go, and something should have been done about him much sooner. Now, was it worth it to go into Iraq? For the U.S. alone, in hindsight probably not. It has been very expensive for us to maintain peace over there, and that's a lot of money which we could have spent elsewhere. On the other hand, we have had very few terrorist attacks here since 9/11, so something is being done right.


This is another piece which caught my attention. Oh sure, the Palestinians have every right to elect a known terrorist group, responsible for murdering many innocent people, to lead them. What business does the U.S. have with their elections? Well if we're sending in all kinds of aid, then that gives us a powerful vote.

Dude..I don't know how much Fox news you watch, but if you SERIOUSLY believe that they are unbiased, you need to take a good look again. There is a difference between being unbiased, and having the same feeings as you do. On SOME aspects, I like Fox News, but I can totally see the bias.

Just as I can with media and Israel. The world has been against Jews since the the days of Jesus. I'm not saying its a public feeling, but you can't deny it.


Iraq was being the right thing to do?! NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE other than Bush felt that way. Those who did were lied to about the WMDs. I don't disagree about Sadaam being sadistic and evil. And maybe something need ed to be done sooner. But it was not our place to lie and go in there, and destroy the nation.
We haven't maintained peace over in Iraq. Its a was zone.
As for your comment about few terroristic attacks since 9/11. That's a very naive and shallow statement. There wasn't alot of terror attacks before 9/11. But then again, by your logic-- I haven't gotten cancer and I wear white socks daily, so white socks must be the prevention for cancer.

@Brains
A democratically elected party? They are confirmed and condemed terrorists. And so with that, they have to accept the consequenses of their choice. Just as the USA is facing the consequences of its choice of monkeybrains, I mean Bush.

As for these settlements and killings. The settlement conflict started from the new Israeli budget. So rather than have peaceful or tactful discussions, they start lauching rockets. A terrorist goes in to a school and MURDERS 8 students. And settlements are NOT intended to kill. They are homes, not military based. But I'm not disagreeing with fustrations over the settlements. There has to be a more peaceful way of doing.
But Brains, you are arguing semantics. That the rockets are ROCKETS, intended to kill. If they don't it doesnt make it ok. Israel's response is meant to attack terrorists. And it is horrendous that innocents are hurt. But the terrorists could prevent that by a) not firing rockets not hiding in civillian areas.

There is a big difference with innocents being accidentally killed by an attack to a terrorist, and terrorists who intentionally go and attack and kill innocents. And finally, the big difference is the response. There is never celebration of the deaths of innocents by Israelis. Even the extremes may have harsh opinions, but they never wish to hurt innocents. You cannot deny the palestinians response to any murder of Americans or Israelis.
I agree the holocaust commnet was uncalled for, but Iran's president has said worse on a regular basis with no consequences.

Any peace process requires both sides to work. But even with difficulties, resorting to violence and terror won't win.

If I had more time, I would split this. For now, lets get back to the Bush bashing, and defending of American pride.

arguments like these will go on forever untill the day the entire world says "hey fuck you" or something .. dont call me ignorant, i didnt have enough time to read all of it from work, just skimmed through it.

but the fox news thing ... "LOL!" is what i guess i'd say to anyone who says that they are not biast

anyways, off to sleep

I'm only going to make one point here, although I could go on for hours. IMHO, the real problem with the US is one of Brains' points: Americans listen to what the American media says, and nothing else. I'm guilty of it myself, because the only time I have for news is what I can glance at on the MSN/CNN/BBC home pages when I have a moment. But because of this, the average American knows about as much of what really goes on in the world as the average refugee at a camp in Africa who hear thing strictly from word of mouth. The American media covers about 10% of the world news that the news in other countries do. Ask the average American what happened to Brittney Spears last year, and they'll tell you. Ask them what happened in Myanmar, and they won't even have heard of the place. Go ahead, ask, I'll wait.

http://www.outfoxed.org/

Brains claiming to be non "anti-american" HA!
All you do is post threads/comments that point out the flaws in the system here in the US, never do you say anything good about it.
OK, in your opinion there may not be.
But that is your opinion and years after first reading your posts it is the same anti-US crap as it ever was.
Boring!

Find a new target for your pointless attacks, Russia is a mess, the Ukrain is corrupt, Sarkozy is in office, Kosovo split from Serbia and oh yeah you can actually say you now have a government complain about congrats!

you actually know already?! 'maaazing!


kays. finished chowing the food.

lk: guys like you never cease to amaze me. I am replying in a topic asking to be critical of americans saying that I am, yet not anti-american and even so you go against me. oh boy.

i'll find a new topic for my pointless attacks if the topic is such. surprise me, post one and stop bitchin.

and while you're at it: post one of these great gifts of good the states have. i am all ears.

Heres the great gift of the USA.

My family left russia after being repressed, and even jailed for being Jewish.
With less money that you probably have in your pocket right now, we have come here, made a great life for ourselves.

My parents built up from nothing, sent 2 kids to college, (I'm out now) and have been able to live happy and free.

I don't doubt that other nations may provide this, but of the big ones, not likely. I have a great job, a great wife (who isn't jewish, and we haven't been stoned for it).
Life is good. And it wouldn't have been possible in the place we left.

The USA has plenty of faults. But so does every other nation out there. Why is Europe paying so much for gas? If its the US's fault, then do something about it, all you wonderful nations.

We may be a superpower, and sometimes do go to far, but who is the first country everyone turns to for help and aid.

And yea, we have an idiot for a president now. But at least (for the moment), I still have the right to call him a monkey brained idiot.

So to anyone who thinks the USA sucks, you can suck it. You don't have to live here, and you don't have to visit. Don't buy our products, don't use our inventions. (you can turn off your computer now).

And maybe I'm just venting cause I'm having a bad day coupled with a nasty headache. But at least I can do that, and not worry about being killed or punished for it.

good. there's one good gift: products, inventions.

you know: i used to be looking up to the states a lot. lots of europeans - well into the nineties. then came that monkey which was able to call itself president of the united states and you lost so fucking much credit it is beyond belief.

since then, i learned that your economy was pretty much turning to shambles, that your wellfare systems sucks, that corporations are waaaaay to powerful there, that guns are revered by a lot you, that your international politics shake the whole world, that your freedom of speech is not as free as one would think press-wise (they're corporations as well) and so on. and it is THAT which i started disliking!

you want to call me anti-american because of it? fine. don't give a toss.

The only way we would have lost so much credit is IF others didn't do their homework and realize that the nation was/is a 50/50 split. So making broad generalizations in that respect is for lack of a better word, ignorant.


Ahh yes corporate greed

Always has, nothing to do with current administration, it has been a failure since inception.

Agreed - Corp monitoring needs to be stepped up

Agreed, at least you didn't say all!

Un-intended side effect of being one of the largest consumer driven economies

I know I am in the minority but I listen to BBC World News, Have your say etc. on a daily basis and fact check my information. And you are saying that Belga and VRT aren't in need of faq checking?

I guess that makes two!

good going lk.

i never made allusions that there is no 50-50 split (supposing you do mean dems-reps split). but even if there is, your elected party is the voice of the nation, the commander in chief. he makes or breaks or at least is able to. "you" refers to "you as a nation". sorry to be unclear.

wellfare: always has indeed. never said it was only the Bush administration being guilty. most of the items i listed is not merely attributable to bush. these things take more than 8 years to grow.

"un-intended side effect of being one of the largest consumer driver economies". what the hell do you mean? I know the economies part. I know that some of the international politics (i was referring to the more violent ones) have - as the administration calls it - unintend side effects. how exactly do you combine the two?

you listen to bbc world news and have your say and all. On a daily basis even?! nice. which examples you have of Belga and the VRT in need of fact checking?

I apparently mis-understood your comment, damn the language barrier! So you are referring to the lust for oil?
What about France and it's infatuation with Côte d'Ivoire?


Long commutes and Sirius sat radio, its a beautiful thing!</sarc> Not to mention NPR before the commute


It was more of a Q, You believe Belga and the VRT are not influenced by money or corporate interests in any way and are not in need of fact checking or the stories they run are not portrayed in a way to fit into the Belgian society/ways of thinking more effectively?

I was. Or to their verbal support of fair elections, while they don't put it in practice. Or to "you can't, while we do". But refer to my first post in this thread.

don't know too much about France's relation to Côte d'Ivoire though. I guess I must use that answer when replying to the next reaction.


good question. they'll most likely have an agenda, but I doubt it'll be that pronounced in comparison to certain american media. i suppose most journalists adhere a lot to their deontology. if one would not be, he'd be outcast by the rest. if the company would be forcing journalist to write such and such and fire the dissidents, they'd have strikes in no time. the public opinion would find it outrageous as well.

but to say they are not biased at all, is a bridge too far for me to assert. these agencies live in this democratical monarchy of Belgium, the size of a US state, having three languages and six governments and still we live at peace. they as well and the persons working for it are a product of their environment. they are not mentioning france's relation to côte d'ivoire a lot for example. they don't seem to care...

Pretty interesting thread, I must say.

now my $0.02
being a Canadian I pretty much grew up American. it's just hard not to. our TV, our food, our toys, nearly everything came from below. but we also got to watch the Canadians copy the Americans (media for example) with less budget and our own maple flavour.
so now we have our choices to make each day like, watching CNN (flashy, expensive looking, 468 PEOPLE DEAD!) or CTVNewsNet, which is less flashy and less grim. our news covers the basics, then the rest of the stories are usually about winter tires, the 'lucky' part of canada that's warm and Timmy Ho's n' Timbits.
So I guess by watching the Canadians take their twist on things, it contrasts some of the sillier American things. Watching Price is Right commercials are hilarious. it's a demonstration of the health system and how fear is a driving force. they're either for prescriptions with fancy names (FloMaXX) and for maladies I've never heard of. or health insurance. (mind you we dump stock pots full of hot oil on the people in our commercials )
and I always thought it was strange how in school we would learn about 60/40% Cdn/USA history. and how much Canadian history is taught below the 49th? Rick Mercer (think Jon Stewart) had a short in his fake news show called 'Talking to Americans.' he'd basically go around asking Americans what they think of "PM Poutine's plans for..." and basically just make them look bad and ignorant. which I don't think they are (some are, but that doesn't matter what part of the world you come from). of course these people don't know much about the Prime Minister when it's not really taught or even out there that much.
but it all gets down to the reason the States of America united. unlike pretty much every other country on the planet, the US was formed on principles and ideas, not geographical convenience. it's no wonder the culture in general is that of pride and gung-Ho! and (I don't mean this in a rude way) self importance.
I think it's all fascinating.

re-reading through this topic, I noticed I am still expecting an answer from candyman!!

where is that troll?!