I am VERY sorry to so that from this thread I learned that as an American, I am a flag waving, bible thumping, insecure, ineffecient, overpaid, idolent member of a herd. BTW, I have bad teeth, amazingly enough my sheeple parents (insert above adjectives to describe them as well, couldn't afford them, and as an adult neither could I.

Are there any American-made fridges anymore? We made our last TV something like 20 years ago.

Americans still make excellent cars. The good ones all say "Toyota" or "Honda" on the nameplate, but they're made in the good old US of A. It's our automobile corporate management that sucks hind end, not our workers.

Not unlike that island nation north of Europe. Hmm, whatever happened to Austin, Hillman, Humber, Triumph, MG, Morris, Singer, Sunbeam?

Thanks for the WSJ link, Jack.

It's just sad that the US has become known for our bible-thumping, McDonald's-eating, red-state masses. The ironic thing is that a huge percentage of them don't even hold passports for travel (which is part of the problem); I rarely come into contact with them, so I can't imagine how a European would.

I had dinner the other night with a German woman who'd worked in France and America for a while. It was really refreshing to hear her get more granular about the differences between our cultures and how all have their positives and negatives.

I wish that dialogues like these could be a bit more like that. I believe Kentucky is the American state with the lowest number of teeth per capita. Some Americans smell. I have a very small fridge and I and most of my friends speak at least one other language. We don't eat at McDonald's; we are actively involved in our political campaigns; few of us are fat (okay, I could stand to lose a few pounds), and we use reusable shopping bags. Stereotypes are such a waste, but there are cultural differences that I find fascinating, and from which I'm trying to learn.

Um, hey Fodors, why were my posts deleted???? Pathetic.

I think you are in the other thread on this topic, MissZ

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35056115

"Maybe for some, travel doesn't broaden the mind, particularly if they are so ethnocentric to begin with."

Because way too many (I did NOT say everyone) people travel, not with the intention of learning anything about the culture of the visited country's people, but to stomp around and gaze at statues and other relics from their middle school text books.

I don't see anything wrong with seeing the sites, but there is so much more to traveling than that...JMO.

I suspect that American foreign policy is judged more stringently because of our perceived power. Chavez might not be a nice man but he does not have aircraft carriers to extend his power across the world.

I said "perceived power" because we Americans came to learn the real limits of military power in Vietnam (my war) and are learning it again in Iraq. It is perhaps no accident that the hawks in the current administration avoided ground combat in Vietnam.

Homeschooling: We did it in elementary school. We had not given up on public schools. They had given up on our son for not sitting still enough. We kept him part-time in public schools; but, we also used the Calvert (very academic) System to teach him at home. He later graduated from high school with 40+ AP credits and was the outstanding math scholar of his graduating class. Stereotypes do not work for home-schoolers, Americans or Europeans.

Regards, Gary

Thanks! Was worried there for a minute..

>Americans still make excellent cars. The good ones all say "Toyota" or "Honda" on the nameplate,<

Except for the Pontiac Vibe. Great car.

It's actually a Toyota Matrix, but the marque is Pontiac.

Actually, Buick is getting better reviews now than Honda or Toyota.

"My French friends would know little about US cinema - even very mainstream films - let alone authors, musicians etc."

Lawchick-WHERE in god's name do you get such a notion? That's an astonishingly naive statement-and I believe it not to be true in the slightest with respect to your friends-I believe that is YOUR perception, not theirs! I mean, if you go to Le Monde RIGHT NOW-you'll see everything you want to see about US cinema, and the arts-in fact, when I was studying in Paris in the 90's -we would talk in class about cinema at least 3 hours a week-every single US film under the sun was discussed, and was shown in theatres (obviously continues to be-before and up to the present) the Parisians are GREAT cineasts-and they dissect the crappy American movies as well as adopt some US films as their own particular favorites.

You DO know, don't you, dear? that Jerry Lewis was awarded the French Legion of Honor? That the former PM of France, Jospin, wanted a Jerry Lewis National Holiday? Does that sound like the French don't know anything about American cinema to you? Perhaps YOU don't know anything about American cinema, but I can assure you that the French very definitely DO.

Honest to god, some of the Brit comments on this board just leave me gobsmacked, that's all I can say! Really, truly naive!

And Sheila is quite right-it's the English and their anti-Americanism, not the Scots-but of course, you can't get much more anti-English, particularly anti-London English, than the Scots-TO A PERSON. I have never heard the English trashed to the degree that I have always heard in Scotland-going back over 250 years now-and it's pretty darn hysterical, I will say that!

Um, that should be 25 years now, not 250-although, come to think of it, that's pretty much been the case with the Scots going back some hundreds of years as well!

GST wrote: "some of the Brit comments on this board just leave me gobsmacked"

And what has that got to do with Lawchick?

Wow, I have found French cinema to b a meeting ground. One night in Saignon(France) A lawyer and family at dinner enjoyed a two hour talk about film evening and another night in Poitiers but my friends in Provence can talk film too.
Re: Scots, I never met one that was anti-American.

Congratulations. Lawchick! You and your legs will bless those ugly hose!

"Americans still make excellent cars. The good ones all say "Toyota" or "Honda" on the nameplate, but they're made in the good old US of A."

Can someone explain that to me? I'm lost.

Umm....what exactly is this post about?

PAtrick..Toyotas are made in the USA..AL, Ky , and about 6 other places. You didn't think they al still came in from Japan , did you?

" I have long been aware that European immigrants to the USA quickly assimilate and cut all ties to the homeland"....not true! You can't overgeneralize like that. I happen to be a European immigrant and yes, I have assimilated, but I have not and will not cut ties with my homeland. There may very well be SOME people who are like that, probably for a good reason, but there may be just as many people who are more like me. I live in the US but still visit my homeland, Germany, every year, and I have German TV here in the US and get German language newspapers delivered to my door. You have to be very careful not to overgeneralize.

My Toyota was made in California, and my Volkswagen was made in Mexico. Car manufacturing is a global sport these days. Many or even most of the parts in that Buick were manufactured in China.