Sometimes I can relate

[EdBecerra]

TACOS, ENCHALADAS, AND BURRITOES ARE NOW AVAILIBLE AT THE RODEO! RIGHT NEXT TO THE WURSTFEST TENT WITH THE BEER AND SAUSAGE!

Ahem....I'm from Texas. German and Mexican culture make a wonderful food selection in my hometown. I was trying to provide insight into how they affected my vernacular. Especially the way I phoenetically pronouce the words 'tacos, enchalads, burritos, tamales, and guadelope.

Heh.

Reminds me of something I said to a Polish friend of mine over on Spacebattles.com that managed to utterly infuriate him.

Using Nikolai Tesla as an example, I pointed out that Americans have invented everything.

He "looked" at me blankly, and demanded to know how I could believe that.

I informed him that once someone overseas invents something. we retroactively declare their parents honorary Americans. Therefore, when they were born, they were born to American citizens who just happened to be living overseas, so they were born American.

By that logic, Louis Pasture was an American, not French. Tesla was an American, not a Serb. Hell, Socrates was an American!

Let's suppose that Catherine_Puce invents something important. We'll just declare her parents American citizens retroactively, then state proudly that the (whatever) was invented by an American citizen, and claim all the credit for ourselves. After all, it wasn't her fault that her parents were careless enough to be overseas when they birthed her, instead of in America, as our Manifest Destiny clearly states they should have been.

In short, if you're a valuable person, we'll claim you and declare you an American, thereby allowing us to take all the credit. If you're not valuable... eh, who cares?

Like spaghetti... We've retroactively given it American citizenship, so it's an American dish that was *accidentally* born overseas, instead of here where it rightfully belongs. Same with pizza, the bratwurst, the hamburger, hungarian gulash, possibly sushi (it's on the iffy list) and so on.

Ahh.. American arrogance. It's so REFRESHING! I feel positively Roman! Someone fetch me my toga, I'm heading for the Senate!

[Madmoonie]

I have seen the Lone Star brewery several, usually on my way to the zoo. That was one of the many familiar sites of my childhood. Really awesome building.

[SolidusRaccoon]

Ahh.. American arrogance. It's so REFRESHING! I feel positively Roman! Someone fetch me my toga, I'm heading for the Senate!

Gee someone take a leak in your wheaties today?

[Madmoonie]

Yah, of course! I mean its not like America has contributed anything to people's culture, like oh, the radio, telephone, basketball, chop sui, freedom of speech, religion, and many other things that are apart of many countries today. Yeah, we just take.

[Aurrin]

Gee someone take a leak in your wheaties today?

He has a point, though. Americans do tend to get quite arrogant sometimes about their own accomplishments, forgetting that they aren't the be-all end-all of human culture and achievement. (And I say this as one of them.) No matter how much you have accomplished, it is not wise to be arrogant or boastful about it. ("Pride goeth before a fall.") It's much better for everyone to simply know. The accomplishments are all the more impressive if you don't have to sell them.

But, by the same token, Solidus has a point too. We're not quite so bad about boasting as many others seem to believe. National pride? Of course. But then, who can claim that they have no national pride? Certainly not the ones who do most of the stone-throwing against Americans. Be realistic in expecting others to have some pride in what they have done, and don't begrudge them that.

[The JAM]

How on EARTH could Socrates be an American if the US hadn't been invented yet during his time?

[Squeaky Bunny]

Gee someone take a leak in your wheaties today?

He has a point, though. Americans do tend to get quite arrogant sometimes about their own accomplishments, forgetting that they aren't the be-all end-all of human culture and achievement. (And I say this as one of them.) No matter how much you have accomplished, it is not wise to be arrogant or boastful about it. ("Pride goeth before a fall.") It's much better for everyone to simply know. The accomplishments are all the more impressive if you don't have to sell them.

But, by the same token, Solidus has a point too. We're not quite so bad about boasting as many others seem to believe. National pride? Of course. But then, who can claim that they have no national pride? Certainly not the ones who do most of the stone-throwing against Americans. Be realistic in expecting others to have some pride in what they have done, and don't begrudge them that.

Americans don't have the market cornered on snobbery. The French have had it much longer, though they have no justification for most of it. The Japanese see themselves as far superior to the Chinese and they in turn are much more civilized than the Koreans.

In short, people who live in glass houses shouldn't.

[RHJunior]

A short list of why Americans are "Arrogant:"

1)World War 1

2)World War 2

3)the Cold War

4)The money we spend on <I>fast food</i> is larger than most nation's gross national product. We literally EAT and CRAP more than most of you hosers economically generate.

5)Thomas Edison

6)Henry Ford

7)Neil Armstrong

8)LANCE Armstrong

9)Immigration. Which way are the boats going, jackass?

10)The only war we ever lost, we lost because we quit and went home.

11)American tracks on the Moon AND Mars.

12)The biggest military force on the stinkin' planet

13)The best medical system in the world-- our lifespan is 5-7 years longer than in france, germany, England, canada, or any other nation with a government medical welfare program

14)We gave Einstein American citizenship. You stupid Krauts would have stuffed him in an oven.

15)General Patton

16)Sergeant York

17)John Wayne

18)Ronald McDonald did what your retard Marx never did and never could--- fed billions and billions on the cheap

19)We're not stupid enough to eat SNAILS and think ourselves SUPERIOR for it.

20)We've seen your films. They suck.

21)Chuck Yeager.

22)Our musicians and actors become worldwide stars THEN travel the world. Yours come HERE to become stars in the first place.

There's hardly a nation on this planet that we havent either whupped up on, bailed out, or both in rapid succession. There's not a nation we haven't outstripped in military, technological, or economic scale. We have been the fiercest foe and the most generous friend any other nation has ever known.

And the only thing the cultural elites can seem to do is sit on their little tin throne and sniff and sneer at our culture, our values, our people, and our "lack of sophistication..." proving their own inferiority more conclusively than anything we could do.

[RHJunior]

NOT THAT I'M HOSTILE ABOUT IT OR ANYTHING......

[Squeaky Bunny]

Both jazz and blues are American art forms.

And let us not forget:

Walt Disney
Jesse Owens
Theodore Roosevelt
George Washington Carver
Wilbur and Orville Wright
Helen Keller
Samuel Clemens
Frank Lloyd Wright

And Dizzy Dean who said "It ain't braggin if you can do it"

[Shyal_malkes]

lets vote for Ralph as president, or a history teacher.

[Madmoonie]

I am ashamed of ya'll......you forgot the greatest part of all.....the wonderful state of Texas!

Here is some of my favroites:
Women's Sufferage
Impartial Justice System
(Was gonna say Carver but someone took it)
One of the richest and deepest cutlural heritages EVER, because everyone comes HERE.
And just makes us better
Martin Luther King Jr.
Southern Baptist Convention
Bill of Rights
The Consititution
Checks and Balances
Cars and motocycles
Planes
Basketball
Football
Dr. Pepper
Texas
The fact I can complain till I am blue in the fact about my home, my government, my president, and the price of gas and not get arrested for it.
I can read what I want and not get arrested for that to.

[Squeaky Bunny]

I am ashamed of ya'll......you forgot the greatest part of all.....the wonderful state of Texas!

Here is some of my favroites:
Women's Sufferage
Impartial Justice System
(Was gonna say Carver but someone took it)
One of the richest and deepest cutlural heritages EVER, because everyone comes HERE.
And just makes us better
Martin Luther King Jr.
Southern Baptist Convention
Bill of Rights
The Consititution
Checks and Balances
Cars and motocycles
Planes
Basketball
Football
Dr. Pepper
Texas
The fact I can complain till I am blue in the fact about my home, my government, my president, and the price of gas and not get arrested for it.
I can read what I want and not get arrested for that to.

Yay Amarillo! Helium capital of the world.

[Wanderwolf]

Well, now, be fair. We *do* tend to take an awful lot of credit, even when it isn't strictly due to us.

For instance, we lay claim to the invention of TV, even though Nazi Germany had the first nationwide broadcasts during the Olympics.

Note, please, that most countries honestly don't mind our accomplishments... I mean, there's a KFC in Tokyo, a Pizza Hut in Moskva, a McDonalds at 221 Baker Street, all of the above in Glasgow...

And why? Because we have so much food, even our cheap, lousy stuff is better than most countries can grow. I mean, we have to import potatoes to Moskva to make french fries because Russian potatoes are... naturally... small potatoes.

We have some of the most entertaining TV (Dallas, for example, is wildly popular in Europe), the cheapest food, and the best market... and it's all because of one thing:

In America, anyone can be Important if they try hard enough. McDonalds could never have started in Japan, where tradition demands subsidiaries remain attached to their home company. Henry Ford would never have made it in Soviet Russia in his day, where disagreeing with the people in power got you shot or exiled.

It's the great advantage of being a nation started by people that nobody else wanted. People who were so tired of the way things were that they moved to a whole new country just to try and make things work the way they wanted them to. Not that all of them were successful (the colonies of Ferryland and Avalon, for example, to say nothing of Henry Ford's all-soybean car), but they had the chance to stand or fall on their own terms.

There's a reason we inspire more defections than anyone else, and it isn't just the string bikinis on the beaches.

Yours wolfishly,

The proud-to-be-an-American,

Wanderer

[The JAM]

Let's not forget: CARTOONS!!!

[Madmoonie]

What I find interesting (this is mostly about food), and this is not particuar to America, is that of the same name in country is TOTALLY differant in another. Pizza in America is, well, pizza! In Italy its alot like what we call a calzone, from my parents say.