That Imus thing: what a jerk. And he has been for years. However, I doubt if he has lost his core audience, and perhaps he will do something like Howard Stern did, go to satellite.
You are not anti-American because you are pro-Middle Ages brewery and pro-Dinosaur Bar-b-q. Give some of them Limeys, Frenchmen and terrorists some of that and they will sing Yankee Doodle Dandy.

I can understand anti-Americanism (And I say that having several friends of the Yankee variety). But it's more of a knee-jerk reaction than a fully thought-out opinion.

Foiled by a matter of moments.

I'm not anti-American. I'm anti-Republican.

Yet Lincoln was a Republican and civic republicanism is one of the great ideas of western politics. I am against neo-conservatism but I am for localization of decision-making, both which might fall into the Republican basket.

The worst thing about the Canadian variety fo Anti-Americanism is the assumption by the perpetrator that the fellow Canadian listener is having the exact same knee-jerk response. A local leftwing PEI newspaper columnist, Campbell Webster, wrote a piece a few weeks ago where he was visiting Belize or something and encountered a rude loudmouth demanding insensitive tourist but much to Campbell's surprise, the loudmouth wasn't American, he was Canadian! Oh, the horror! Campbell went on to say how terrible it is for us to assume that all loudmouth tourists are American and that we Canadians are so self-righteously innocent. What he failed to acknowledgew that that is his own bias, not mine. It is prevalant among Canadians, but I think it speaks even worse of a person's bias when he assumes that everyone shares the misunderstanding.

I am ashamed to say that I used to carry quite an anti-american slant in my day to day life. That changed when I actually started spending more time in the states in th epresence of americans. Now I understand that there are many ways in which Candians would bewell advised to follow the lead of our friends to the south (food, beer, R&D, a culture of retail and service excellence, etc.).

Now American foreign policy - that's another kettle of fish all together eh?

What is a Canada?

It's that thing up there on your map that has no roads or towns in it.

I'm not Anti-American. I'm Anti-American-Admninistration. They seem to elect a greater portion of buffoons than we ever could.

Oh. I thought that was Greenland. Has Encyclopaedia Brittanica updated since 1879? I should probably get my reference books in order.

MY POINT IS PROVED: my Canadian pal Paul here has been with me to Middle Ages brewery and Dinosaur bbq. So I say AH HA! You cannot be anti-American if you go to these fine places. (Middle Ages even gives the beer out FREE, take that America haters!)
And yes, Paul, recent gov't policy on many things down here has stunk like a very old kettle of fish on a very hot day.

And when you consider Middle Ages offers free beer regularly if not at all hours it is open, it a particularly strong argument for international peace and love.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote very readable books. He is one of the very few writers at whose writings I have actually laughed out loud.

Hans is correct. Vonnegut was something else. And an American no less, bit one who was not afraid to point the finger at the gov't.

Listen, this thing with Imus. Those young women did something pretty cool, a bunch of unknowns fighting their way up to the championship for the first time, pretty heroic. Not sure why he had to be nasty, esp. since they were from Imus' hometown (broadly speaking).

I feel that gr needs to be suspended from posting for 2 weeks for his use of the derogatory term "broad".

We support the use of any lyrics from "South Pacific" or usage analogous.

This is even more to the point.

That's some jaunty wordsmithery. Ice-T had some terms he used for women that are along the same lines back in the day.

A few years ago the CRTC shut down (refused a licence renewal of) a radio station in Quebec City, after years of complaints about their morning shock-jock. Some examples: he suggested that an “Indian hunting season” be opened in the fall instead of a game hunting season and, in discussion of a court case in which a father was charged with killing his disabled daughter, he compared disabled children to animals. Almost makes Imus sound tame.

Speaking of dames, how much would a radio talk show hosted by the ghosts of the Rat Pack rule?

I could definitely listen to their thoughts, especially those of Sammy Davis Jr. on a regular basis. Canada's equivalent? Bruno Gerussi.

You would never know Gerussi has a glass eye looking at that photo.

Couldn't figure out Nate for a second there. Lame joke, buddy, as I was referring to the fact that New Brunswick, NJ is in the greater NY area, otherwise known as Imus' local audience.
But I can take a joke, Nate, as I too am a Cubs fan. Now that's a big joke.

I cannot say I am anti-American. I have many fine friends from the US (Gary, Jim, Rachael (www.urbanbella.com), Frank (www.francisstokes.com);I have relatives there; I even worked as a foreign volunteer for John Kerry (I feel the arrows in my back now, thank you all). I positively love New England. and although the mainstream food, beer, literature, music and television is for the most part bland and uninteresting, small scale all of the above are just fine.

What I think is my problem, is the fact that the nation seems to love the neo-conservatives, the religious right and the republican mindset. I just cannot fathom how a nation can treat an mere elected 4 year term official as a "comander in chief" or more aptly described "elected temporary Emperor"..

I guess I like the system we have better and cannot see merit in theirs.

Bruno Gerussi is my Co-Pilot..

There is no bigger joke than being a Cubs fan. We are doomed to a life of misery, pain and sadness. And Mark Prior shoulder injuries.

I liked Bruno best as host of Celebrity Cooks although my favourite quote of his comes from the Beachcombers: "Agh! Jesse!"

What really freaks me out about my education on things American is that not more than four years ago I held the opinion that Canadian beer was superior to American beer. I know now that only American beer sold on mass in Canada sucks. Once again those yanks have strategically kept the good stuff for themselves.

Celebrity cooks was teh best cooking show ever.. No shaky camera, faux "film" looks, dowdy 45+ year old english women trying to look sensual and 20 something.. Just a cool canadian actor drinkiing a huge glass of red wine, some funny celebs, cooking and collared shorts open to show gold chains and chest hair.. damn, I think Bruno was my father.

We as a family stopped everything to watch the show every time it was on and we even bought the cookbook.

"agh! Jesse!" Well put Hans..

BEES! I am nothing but pleased to see the demise of the unnatural numbers if bees we keep as human slavemasters. In nature there would be many many less than currently are kept in hives.. plus they are EUROPEAN honeybees. not NORTH AMERICAN honeybees.. natural bees and their ilk will fill the void and pollinate the crops.. to hades with the money makers.

My epipen thanks Crom for setting the balance right..

The Frantics called him Bruno Juicy in a skit. I alomst drove off the road laughing the first time I heard that.

I want to be a dame when I grow up.

I'm a star nosed mole

:)

Whoops. I meant:

I'm a star nose mole

:*)

Alan, those might be the nicest words I've ever received about the blog, and as all of you know, that's hard to come by out here in cyberspace. For the record, Alan has to be one of the most stand-up guys I've never actually met, and helped me make a splash last Christmas by co-selected some of the finest beers in the world for my nephew.

As for Anti-Americanism, as a native, I can say that you've never truly hated Americans until you've lived here through the 2004 election. We were THIS CLOSE to buying land in P.E.I...

Living all of a block and a half from Victoria's tourist central I am constantly delighted by the courtesy and friendliness of our Southern neighbours. And having spent lots of time in the States I was not at all surprised.

A certain section of Canadian society needs to demonize America and Americans for reasons having more to do with its internal Canadian political agenda than any particularly obnoxious American characteristics. Some Canadians need to define themselves in terms of what they are not and what they are not most of all is American.

The rest of us can be more objective simply because we have our own identity as Canadians rather than an identity predicated upon not being Americans. We can disagree with US foreign policy, or not. We can like Bush, or not.

What I do find pathetic is the other side of the equation where we import people like the Goracle to tell us how we should live. Or only acknowledge Canadian talent when it has an American movie/book/recording deal.

- My teenage self will miss Vonnegut, my adult self will mis being able to see through Vonnegut's appeal to my teenage self.Mind you I feel much the same way about Thomas Pynchon and Tom Robbins

- Amusingly, one of KMG's criticisms of Little Mosque on the Prairie is that the talkshow host is a cruel bigot and that he would not last a week on the Canadian airwaves. I think Cherry tested the limits of this when he made his remarks about the Euros and the French Canadian players wearing face masks. He did not quite call them pussies but he certainly suggested that face mask wearing and brawny virility were a contradiction in terms.