Well, Kat, I know what you mean. Actually, I can be just as sweeping about other nationalities as well, including my own Canadians. I do try to use words like "most" and "virtually" when making those sweeping statements, so as to show that I don't mean ALL of you...

It's actually your government and your media that I can't stand. Americans as individuals I like just fine.

I did spend 10 years living in the USA and went through most of my grade school and high school there, so I do have a good deal of practical exposure to "the land of the free and the home of the brave". All countries are full of their own mythology and their own blindspots, and if you live in some different ones it gets easier to see how that works. The thing that sets the USA apart is that it's so powerful and heavily armed...rather like a present day Rome bestriding the world like a collossus. Furthermore, the relentless commercial marketing of American culture is robbing many other places of much of their own culture...just as the Romans did to the numerous smaller nations all around them. They were not well liked for it. That's one of the prices of empire building.

Anyway, no offense taken at my end.

- LH