Are you proud to be American?

[Anonymous]

i apologize for nitpicking, but isn't the PP who is limiting to the last 75 years the same one who said "where else in the 10,000 years of recorded civilizations ..."? Actually, perhaps the difference between 75 and 10,000 is more than a nit. BTW, what recorded civilizations go back 10,000 years???

This is just rhetorical, since the other PP was actually limiting to the past century anyway, so don't feel a need to respond. The 10,000 exaggeration did not bother me until the fuss over the 75.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i apologize for nitpicking, but isn't the PP who is limiting to the last 75 years the same one who said "where else in the 10,000 years of recorded civilizations ..."? Actually, perhaps the difference between 75 and 10,000 is more than a nit. BTW, what recorded civilizations go back 10,000 years???

This is just rhetorical, since the other PP was actually limiting to the past century anyway, so don't feel a need to respond. The 10,000 exaggeration did not bother me until the fuss over the 75.

ugh. try to follow along dimwit. 10,000 years of history was an exaggeration. I'm happy to limit it to 3,000. Is that better? Over all of recorded history, when one country had hegemonic power (even regionally), they have always been not shy about exercising that power in expanding, conquering and oppressing others. The examples are countless. Roman, Greek, Persian, French, British, Mongols, Russian, Saxons, Mayans, Aztec, Incans, etc etc etc. The USA has been in that category for say the last 75 years, that was the point. We did not invade Canada in 1952, we invaded Canada in 1812.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, I feel blessed to be here and I don't agree with everything we've ever done or are continuing to do.

I guess I feel about it the same way I feel about my family of origin or my religion of childhood. It's OK for ME to criticize and find fault, as a member of the tribe. If an outsider says nasty things about us, I'd take offense.

One can be critical of one's tribe or country and still love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am proud to be an American. I think it is a special, exceptional place. For about 75 years we have been one of the most powerful nations in the history of Earth - basically the sole economic and military superpower with no true rivals. But instead of expanding and conquering, we have used that power for mostly well-intentioned purposes. Millions around the world dream of moving to America and to have the opportunities and blessings that we take for granted. When Cuban beaches are full of swimmers coming over from Miami then talk to me ...

Instead of "conquering", we have used that power for 'mostly' well-intentioned purposes.

This reply takes the cake. PP, you are one proud American...

study history. where else in the 10,000 years of recorded civilizations as a country been so ridiculously powerful but acted so relatively restrained? come on. the only thing comparable would be China in the 1200s-1300s.

+1000
the US is very restrained. There are many countries in the world that, if they had the means, would wipe us from the map. It doesn't even occur to us to do something like that. Even when we wage war, we expand incredibly effort to protect "civilians" which, in many case, wish us death and destruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, we don't need to go around telling the world how great we are. There's also nothing wrong with feeling a sense of pride in much of what our country has accomplished. The leading question of this thread prompted several posters to share those feelings. Nothing wrong with that!

And yet we do. Constantly.

For all of our greatness, humility is not one of our traits.

BTW, it's usually the people who've never set foot outside of the USA who are most guilty of this obnoxious behavior.

Just curious, which countries do you view as being appropriately modest about their achievements?

All of them, I guess, since, you know, they don't run around bragging about them, so no examples of the contrary come immediately to mind.

You think you are cosmopolitan by saying this, but you are in fact a provincial American who has no clue what goes on in the world. Have you ever even lived abroad for an extended period of time?

Citizens of almost all countries are viciously nationalistic and over-estimate their national achievements by many orders of magnitude. Now, their achievements are so small that they still sometimes admit that, you know, American have done more (though they think it's because they stole things from them etc). There was a Pew study a few years ago that showed only maybe a third or a quarter of Americans believed that the US is a world leader in science. That is the kind of people we are.

[Anonymous]

A 2006 study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.
Another study found that Americans drink an average of 22 gallons of beer a year.
That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles per gallon.

PROUD AMERICAN. 41mpg NOT BAD!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Your comments sadden me. I haven't been to Norway in over 30 years but thought it was a beautiful country at the time (was there for a week) with miles of natural terrain and fjords. Also thought all the tall, blond, blue-eyed guys were incredibly handsome!

[Anonymous]

Very proud and grateful to be an American. But I don't think my country is perfect. Many seem to interpret this as "hating" my country. Wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Your comments sadden me. I haven't been to Norway in over 30 years but thought it was a beautiful country at the time (was there for a week) with miles of natural terrain and fjords. Also thought all the tall, blond, blue-eyed guys were incredibly handsome!

It has beautiful nature - the see has incredibly color and the hills are nice and fresh... But they have no notable architecture and a lot of soc-realistic type of buildings. There are a few cool new buildings like the Opera but you have that kind of stuff everywhere now, so that's not so special.

I find Dutch men (and women) incredibly attractive; Norwegians not so much. Yes, they are tall and fit which is not that surprising because the food is so expensive one needs to make like 300k in order to be fat... The portions are minuscule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Virtually nothing to buy. OK, you just didn't get around much. You have no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

PROUD AMERICA, 41 Miles Per Gallon
A 2006 study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.

Another study found that Americans drink an average of 22 gallons of beer a year.

That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles per gallon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Your comments sadden me. I haven't been to Norway in over 30 years but thought it was a beautiful country at the time (was there for a week) with miles of natural terrain and fjords. Also thought all the tall, blond, blue-eyed guys were incredibly handsome!

It has beautiful nature - the see has incredibly color and the hills are nice and fresh... But they have no notable architecture and a lot of soc-realistic type of buildings. There are a few cool new buildings like the Opera but you have that kind of stuff everywhere now, so that's not so special.

I find Dutch men (and women) incredibly attractive; Norwegians not so much. Yes, they are tall and fit which is not that surprising because the food is so expensive one needs to make like 300k in order to be fat... The portions are minuscule.

I'm tall, so the height appealed to me! I also loved the small but very appealing churches that we toured. It probably made quite a difference that our tour guide was Norwegian and took us to a lot of out of the way places that she'd known since childhood. It's actually been closer to 40 years since I've been there, so I know things have changed a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous/quote wrote:

+1000
the US is very restrained. There are many countries in the world that, if they had the means, would wipe us from the map. It doesn't even occur to us to do something like that. Even when we wage war, we expand incredibly effort to protect "civilians" which, in many case, wish us death and destruction.

When we dropped those atomic bombs in Japan, what constraint was used to protect civilians. We are the only country to use nuclear weapons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Virtually nothing to buy. OK, you just didn't get around much. You have no idea what you are talking about.

Even if I didn't "get around much" in normal cities you don't need to go to a secret places with special guides to find interesting stuff. You can put anyone from anywhere in the world in the middle of Manhattan (or for that matter, any good mall in the US) and within several hours he will find at least one item he would like to have. The range of choices is simply incredible. Not so in Norway.