Orange Alert!!

[Achilleez]

My last post was not an apology, rather a clarification.

 

My tone throughout the entire second paragraph was sarcastic, a reflection of my discontent with the people who are taking the American situation as amusing. I was speaking as the voice of the people I disagree with. There in lies the problem with typing, you cannot easily express things like sarcasm, sterness, humor or other such styles of communication.

 

[dsteele]

Achileez:

 

Before using sarcasm on these boards, I suggest you have a few more posts under your belt. Let people get used to your sense of humor.

 

I was insulted by your posts as well, but now I see what you mean.

 

No, as a rule, I don't think Americans are afraid in their daily lives. If your government and media want to make us out that way, they're making the same mistake the Japanese made in 1941 and Al Queda made in 2001.

 

Americans don't mind looking soft . . . but we really aren't. It seems like the world forgets it every fifty or sixty years.

 

The British forgot it in 1775. The Spanish forgot it in 1812. The Mexicans forgot it (I forget the year, but do remember the Alamo.) Pancho Villa had to learn it the hard way. The Germans forgot it in 1916 and again in 1939. As I said, the Japanese forgot it in 1941. We fought hard in Korea and did some good there. We lost in Vietnam, but not entirely. We helped forge a democratic nation that would not have existed without our help.

 

In the 1990's, we liberated Kuwait. In 2003, we liberated Iraq.

 

I understand that you're on our side, Achileeze, but if your friends need a reminder that the United States of America is united and that it's people are strong, I suggest you have them come have a cup of coffee in Wisconsin.

 

DS

 

PS --

I don't understand the reference to Zed and eh. What's that about?

[Achilleez]

The land of Zed and eh : We use the letter 'zed' instead of your letter 'zee'. And of course we are notorious for saying 'eh' in our speech. But beleive me I have been to North Eastern America many a time and the expression eh is used quite frequently as well.

[Achilleez]

The land of Zed and eh : We use the letter 'zed' instead of your letter 'zee'. And of course we are notorious for saying 'eh' in our speech. But beleive me I have been to North Eastern America many a time and the expression eh is used quite frequently as well.

[Achilleez]

Oops posted twice

[LovetoCamp]

In Vietnam, the only fight the Americans lost were several platoon sized engagement or smaller. The soldiers and marines won their part every time, the politicians lost their part.

 

And the last time Canada contributed significantly in or to any world crisis was, well, uh, hmmm, right, I dunno either.

 

 

 

 

[Twocubdad]

Trailpounder - here's a hint: look at a map of the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, eh?

 

(I've gotta say I loved the two Canadian moose in Brother Bear. We took our Bear den to see the movie -- with a tour of the projection booth, cool! -- and all the kids walked around, you know, talkin' like hosers for two weeks, eh?)

[LovetoCamp]

hey, no helping

[Achilleez]

TP, I do hope that your not implying that Canada has never helped in crisis situations. We sent aid after 9/11. We have been in Afghanistan for years and are still there. 3/4 of the Canadian navy is currently patroling the Persian Gulf in alliance with Coalition forces (heh I think that makes like 3 ships), our country accepts 3 times the number of refugees that the US does (speaking in terms of the percentage of our populations). You know that big earthquake that killed 20,000? We are there too. The weeks before Christmas I volunteered about 50 hours of my time to help direct Operation Christmas Child, a group that sends gift packages to children in areas of the world where they won't get Christmas presents.

 

So please do not imply that we don't do our part.

[acco40]

I am not privy to the latest intelligence reports so what I am about to post is based on ignorance on my part but here goes ...

 

My life has changed dramatically since 9/11. However, it is mostly due to changes that my government has made and not to my personal fears. I work in the defense industry and my workplace no has a nice new fence complete with razor wire and some new guard shacks. When I do business at various military installations, I have to bob and weave around concrete barriers, wait, remove my shoes when I fly, wait, submit to various inspections, wait, pay a "security fee" for every flight I take (non-refundable I might add), ... In short, the terrorists have won if their objective was to alter our style of life.

 

Does the "orange" alert change my actions? No, not unless it is forced upon me. Now, IMO, all of these security measures have been done to placate the populous and not t oincrease our level of security. We essentially have open borders. Heck, we can't even protect our borders from an invasion of Canadian cows, much less terrorists.

 

By the way, you do know how Canada was named don't you. A bunch got together and started throwing out possible letters. How about a "C", eh? "N" eh? "D" eh? The American scribe then printed it out, CaNaDa! Hope you had a wonderful boxing day!

[acco40]

Sorry, double post.(This message has been edited by acco40)

[KoreaScouter]

I'm reminded of a 1970's piece entitled "The Americans", by Canadian newsmen. I'll paste in the text below; introduction is by a web site author...

 

KS

 

_____________________________________________________

 

DEAR KENNETH: The recording to which you refer is The Americans, written by legendary Canadian broadcaster, Gordon Sinclair, and originally broadcast June 5, 1973 on his Let's Be Personal radio program (CFRB, Toronto, Ontario).

 

Near the end of '73, Byron MacGregor, a CKLW (Windsor-Detroit) newsman, had his recitation of Sinclair's editorial out on record (Westbound 222). In no time, it made the American Top 5.

 

For the record, The Americans has nothing to do with Viet Nam.

 

Though some of the text is as true and appropriate today as 28 years ago, other portions are no longer accurate.

 

Here it is:

 

The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French, and British Exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971, and this Canadian thinks it's time to speak up for the Americans, as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.

 

As long as 60 years ago when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.

 

They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges, and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water, and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help.

 

Germany, Japan, and to a lesser extent Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars, and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

 

When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

 

When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries in to help. Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples.

 

So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.

 

The Marshall Plan, the Truman Policy, all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans. I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane.

 

C'mon, let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet? The Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas 10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines, except Russia, fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man, or woman, on the moon?

 

You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you will find men on the moon not once, but several times, and safely home again.

 

You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right there in the store window for everybody to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them unless they are breaking Canadian laws are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home, to spend here.

 

When the Americans get up from this bind, as they will, who could blame them if they said the hell with the rest of the world. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds. Let someone else build or repair foreign damns, or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.

 

When the railways of France, Germany, and India, were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.

 

I can name you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

 

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who's damned tired of hearing them kicked around.

 

They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.

 

I hope Canada is not one of these, but there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians.

 

And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th annual meeting in New Orleans, that was broke.

 

This year's disasters have taken it all and nobody but nobody has helped.

 

[Achilleez]

KS I enjoyed reading your post, and I wish that there was more of those feelings here in Canada.

 

As a country we don't hate Americans, we have little reason to. We have pretty much all the same freedoms, and fairly evenly matched financially (speaking in terms of average citizens)

 

But let me tell you, even I was a little bristled when America closed the border to Canadian beef. I still can't sell my cattle and they keep eating my money away.

 

Wouldn't it be ironic if that Washington cow turned out to be from you?