As a Canadian, it seems like the patriotic thing to do to bash Americans as being an opposite to where we stand as a nation. I try not to cuz I have relatives and freinds from the States, but it gets hard when I see the bad choices being made in the name of justice and safety.

The number of incidents that have occurred globally where American assistance would have been beneficial, but went ignored, is staggering...but not really surprising. However, I think the States gets dumped on regardless of what it does; got dumped on for failing to intervene in Rwanda and getting dumped on for being in Iraq. Both were poor choices, as they were guided by the past and its effects on a previous generation.

And of course Terri Irwin's probably pissed at good ole' Steve. Any spouse probably would be extreme anger at losing their soulmate and father/mother of their children so suddenly. But she knew that his gung ho attitude was goning to eventually causing him injury...he was like a peaceful version of Jayne: a man of action and energy that would eventually die with his boots on. Gonna be hard on her for a while cuz of these conflicting feelings:(

BEB

EDIT:

I like this country and I'm pretty sure that unless I happen to marry a foreigner, I'm not going to permanently leave.

That said, I agree that there are a lot of things wrong with this country. The one(s) that stand(s) out is how America is rather exploitative and manipulative (yes, I realize all politics are). Large corporations exploit the domestic and foreign workers. Our government uses irrational fear to propagate their own ends.

IT DRIVES ME NUTS!

Now I'm off to my Vietnam Wars class for real.

When I travel and I encounter someone that seems sketchy, I say I'm Canadian. I'm fairly confident it's saved my ass at least once.

Do you think people in other countries care what we think of them?

I think it is wrong to assume that those who disagree with anti-American sentiments do not understand why they are held. They simply don't find them to be a compelling reason to change what they are doing. Being unpopular is not the same thing as being wrong.

And as for the Irwins, the aspect of his personanlity that put him in the situation that ultimately got him killed is probably the very thing that attracted her to him. It was her choice to share a life, to start a family with him - no fair being angry at him for doing what he does.

Canada's lookin' pretty good some days.
My French is just bad enough to pass me for une Canadienne in France.
There is good, there is bad. Extremes are never the answer. They do tend to have the louder of the voices,though.
Teach you children well.

Yeah it's why I'm glad my french accent is good enough to pass for native. Rather not admit I'm American when abroad as I have a reasonably good survival instinct.