Feb 7 2003, 4:12 am
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digitalmouse
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I love racing...um...that is what we are talking about, right?
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I think that My Fellow Americans have answered your charges quite admirably, especially Leftley and Gughunter.
It's not Canada-bashing. It's everything-ribbing. Everyone gets ribbed about where they live. Most people are self-effacing enough to do it themselves. That said, there's one point I'd like to particularly address: all Canadians are Hicks that drive old 65 Ford Pickups, Nobody anywhere in the history of all prejudice has ever said this, or anything remotely approximating that. | |
It's a descriptive name. The United States of America. Several independent, sovereign American states come together to form one government. What better name could we have then the United States of America?
Most countries have descriptive names. England... Angland... Land of the Angles. What kind of lazy ass name is that? Even worse, their modern name is the United Kingdom. Gee, don't they think that other kingdoms ever got the idea to unite? How about Greenland and Iceland? Shouldn't they get names that require a little more ingenuity? The unmitigated gall of countries to use functional and descriptive names! Can you imagine how many countries there are in the world whose names translate more or less into "The Land"? Honestly, we should perfect cloning technology just so we can revive the founders of these so-called countries and shoot them for their rampant stupidity. Of course, the true meaning and etymology of the word "Canada" is lost (I'm personally fond of the "Here is nothing" theory), so you can pretend to yourself that your country is different, that your country's name is some great act of artistic genius... but it's no different. Countries... all countries, everywhere... have nothing but the most functional names... it's just because you're an English speaker and our name happens to be in English that you find ours stupid... kind of like if everyone abandoned their given names in favor of the English translation. "Hi, this is my friend God's Gift. God's Gift, I'd like you to meet One Who Is Fortunate. One Who Is Fortunate, this is God's Gift. She introduced me to Good With Children." Well, call us America if you find United States to be boring. And before you protest... we're the first (and to date, the only) country to claim it as part of our name. We can't help it that the surrounding regions came to be known by the same name, but we're not going to give up our proper name on that account. | |
THE Brama Bull wrote:
Canada is a really great country. And for those of you who insult Canada or Candians really need to grow up. Only little geeky nerds and children make remarks about Canadians or Canada. And as for all Canadians being hicks, that's just stupid. Canada is a really big help to America. We trade with them and they usually back us up in a war. So people shouldn't be so ignorant. You're right. People of all nations should strive to maintain a high level of cultural awareness, to learn as much as they can of foreign peoples. Only then can we make informed jokes about each other. | |
Lesbian Assassin wrote:
all Canadians are Hicks that drive old 65 Ford Pickups, True. No one thinks that of Canadians at all. But there are about 30+ US states that has been said of. Lummox JR | |
God i hate people being made fun of because they are either white, black, asian or canadian...
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stop whining about what people say about America Jr.
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Lesbian Assassin wrote:
(I'm personally fond of the "Here is nothing" theory)... No, no, - you are thinking of 'Da-nada', not 'Ca-nada'... I always thought it was something like 'Can-a-da', as in 'Can a dad' eh? It's what many smart Eskimo women did to the successful European trappers who set up shop around Hudson Bay. I'm pretty sure this is true since my Great-Great-Great-Great grandmother (who was from that area, and of Eskimo/Native American descent) married an Elson from England at the time, and ave birth to 8 kids. (We've got a well documented family tree down that line). Back then it was important for survival to breed like rabbits... And if you follow my mothers family tree forward until the present you would see a trend: Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother had 8 kids, Great-Great-Great Grandmother had 2 kids, Great-Great Grandmother had 7 kids, Great Grandmother had 3 kids (one died in childbirth), Grandmother had 8 kids (one being my mother of course), Mother had only me... So I guess it falls to me to bring about the next population explosion...so far I've been lucky to avoid the siren's call, but I must admit that even at the ripe old age of 35 the genomes are beginning to cry out for replication! =) | |
True. No one thinks that of Canadians at all. But there are about 30+ US states that has been said of. Rick Mercer did pull one over on the governor of Alabama: "Congratulations, Canada, on getting your first mile of paved road!" | |
I fall into mostly the former category. I'll admit I'm hard on Canadians (Spuzzum may be able to attest to that, although I don't think I've made any truly stinging or memorable remarks about it...) but as a Californian, I've learned to take these sorts of jokes well. I thus tend to assume other people will take them well too. I can't attest to that because I've never seen you be hard on Canadians. Everything you said about me seemed to be joking, and even on the lighter side of joking. =) | |
Bush is proof that even civil rights apply to the oval office. We can not discriminate because someone is stupid. Now, I agree, war is great, technologies spike, as well as medicine, etc, though I don't agree with dieing for someone else's ideals (especially junior's) The fact of the matter is, Bush cheated to get into office and its obvious he's driving us into war, just so he can have a villian (3 in fact) so that he can get re-elected. The sad thing is, his daddy probably set it up for him because I doubt that baby Bush even has the brain power to feed himself.
On that note, I'd like to announce to any non-americans, the president does NOT represent me as an american! I did not vote for him and personally if he were burning in hell, I wouldn't p!$$ on him to put him out. Don't judge me with him as the status stick, please. | |
Most likely you are from Ontario, where as demographics have shown, older vehicles have a stigma attached to them. This is understandable, as higher sulphur and moisture levels rust cars more quickly. I am pretty sure the same holds true for the Maritimes and BC. We hardly drive around in old vehicles either, but a mechanically maintained vehicle can last twenty years, and an old pickups are kinda admired(unless they are rust buckets). Actually, B.C. has a relatively low amount of rust near the water -- the climate (west-coast marine) tends to cause the air to flow off of the land into the water. The clouds from the ocean drift into the mountains at high altitudes, and then when they hit them they make a downpour throughout the Fraser Valley, causing a temperature differential with low pressure towards the ocean, causing air to flow westward. As a result, the Lower Mainland's air is usually extremely moist but with very few suspended particles -- any pollutants get sent out to sea. This is only in the area where I live, however -- that is, the southwestern corner of the province. In the Columbia plateau (between the Coast (Columbia) Mountains and the Rocky Mountains), it mimics a climate not unlike that of the north-central American states, and in some places even gets to the point of semi-desert. Anywhere excluding the interior plateau is not unlike Colorado, of course -- what do you expect for several hundred thousand square klicks of pristine mountain forests? =) On a related note, though most Canadians tend to get highly upset when they're called America Jr., the Lower Mainland follows a style ridiculously close to that of California. Ordinarily that wouldn't be so bad, but what people fail to realise is that it rains 1400 mm per year around here. In other words, every square centimetre of earth in the Lower Mainland gets "submersed" in 1.4 metres of rain, or the rough equivalent of 4¾ feet, over the course of a year. It's simply not practical to build flat-roofed buildings in this climate, but that doesn't stop most people from trying to make Vancouver like a mini-L.A.. After a couple days of raining, you can practically go downtown and swim on a warehouse's roof. | |
Americans are fat and lazy, Canadians are dumb hicks I'm pretty sure those stereotypes are viewed the other way around. Watch "The Jackal" (Bruce Willis) for support to that. =) | |
Of course, the true meaning and etymology of the word "Canada" is lost (I'm personally fond of the "Here is nothing" theory), You might already be aware of this, but the most widely accepted theory is that when British settlers met the natives, they pointed to their village and mentioned "Canada", which presumably was referring to their village. The settlers assumed they were referring to the whole landmass, and the term caught on. Also, the full name for this country is the Dominion of Canada. We don't call ourselves the Dominion, because aside from being quite obscure, it seems rather ominous (especially to Star Trek fans). The Bringers of Post-Its call themselves the United States, but that's because calling themselves America is a little ambiguous. (I don't it's ambiguous, myself -- the term "America", by itself, refers exclusively to the U.S.A., as far as I'm concerned -- but I'm just referring to common practice.) | |
Also of important note is that when the war for independence was fought, they referred to themselves as Americans. It was the Americans versus the British.
Since Canada never fought against the British, I would be inclined to believe that Canada does not consider its population to be called Americans. We got our "independence" (if you can call it that) diplomatically. | |