Quaker2001 Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 Yes, 1. What makes America "so liberal" when the extremely liberal president barley has a 42% approval rating, no one is interested in socialized medicine, and in a recent galop poll it showed that had the election been this year Romney would have won. Does not sound too liberal to me... Maybe I need to keep up with current events more.. President Barley? Glad to see this site hasn't lost its touch and that it can still go off on a tangent into something completely useless. int was right when he said it was a pointless exercise. That said, if someone says "America," more often than not, it is referred solely to the United States of America. If someone says "American," more often than not it's referring to someone from the United States. To refer to the continents, most people would call them North America or South America or The Americas. To Rols' point (and I actually have a friend who just traveled to Chile on vacation, so I should ask him), I'm guessing that most people in South American would refer to themselves as Sudamericano/a, not simply Americano. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 I don't think they mean "Canada" here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.bernham Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 God is for all people of the earth, not only to bless USA In this case the UK must get a new national anthem. Maybe I need to keep up with current events more.. President Barley? Glad to see this site hasn't lost its touch and that it can still go off on a tangent into something completely useless. int was right when he said it was a pointless exercise. That said, if someone says "America," more often than not, it is referred solely to the United States of America. If someone says "American," more often than not it's referring to someone from the United States. To refer to the continents, most people would call them North America or South America or The Americas. To Rols' point (and I actually have a friend who just traveled to Chile on vacation, so I should ask him), I'm guessing that most people in South American would refer to themselves as Sudamericano/a, not simply Americano. Sorry it was meant to come across as: 1. Our extremely liberal president barely has a 42% approval rating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athensfan Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 A couple of points. Even in this thread people do not use "Americas" and "America" interchangeably. "Americas" refers to the two continents. "America" refers to the United States. The only label to describe citizens of the United States of America is "Americans." They can't very well be "statespeople." Nor can they be simply "the United." That leaves "Americans." Why can't Canadians be content with being Canadians and North Americans? I honestly don't see the problem here. As near as I can tell a few people are irked because they feel the USA is laying claim to the whole continent, but that's clearly not the case. We have defined borders and we know what they are. This is purely an accident of nomenclature. The founding fathers chose the name "The United States of America" -- which made perfect sense at the time. It was not designed to spite Canadians and, truthfully, at the time the country was formed there wasn't much clarity on just how big it would become. Come on, people. It's just not that big a deal. As for "God Bless America" -- the song isn't written at anyone's expense. Of course one would like God to bless all people. The song just chooses to focus on a portion of them. The song isn't saying "Curse France! Curse Korea! Curse Uruguay!" It's inviting God to bless America. Lovely. What's wrong with that? Even if you're an atheist, it's not particularly offensive because from that perspective such blessings don't exist. Worst case scenario, it's a futile plea, but it's certainly not racist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 In this case the UK must get a new national anthem. Sorry it was meant to come across as: 1. Our extremely liberal president barely has a 42% approval rating. Eh...they all drop in their 2nd term, The independents, unfortunately, are such a fickle and impatient lot. See his predecessor's... http://www.gallup.com/poll/116500/presidential-approval-ratings-george-bush.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athensfan Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 I don't think they mean "Canada" here... The interesting thing is that they definitely DON'T mean Puerto Rico. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistercorporate Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 Guys relax. Canadians are hardly wanting to be American like someone here offensively generalized. Not even sure why intoronto brought it up as an irritant as I don't know anyone here who has a problem with Americans calling themselves citizens of America, however inaccurate that statement may be from a purely detail-oriented perspective. It's a minor matter. I refer to citizens of the USA as Americans and noone else, it's a noble title and Americans earned all the positive connotations associated with it. Canadians are proud of our country to the point of being condescending bastards. There was a time back in the 80's when Canadians did have an inferiority complex but those days are long gone, nowadays (the past 5 years at least) there's more Americans applying for Canadian citizenship/residency than there are Canadians applying the other way, Canada is a damn good place to live in and we welcome the world to immigrate here provided they are good people and don't bring any negative bagage with them. That being said we share a common North American culture and we love our American brothers and sisters, anyone who messes with the US messes with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ofan Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 Kind of offended by this; not going to go into details, but just to let you know who are you to say it is "very incorrect to simply refer to 'America'"? Sure there are other nations here, but America is a common and well used nick-name for the USA. It's similar to US it does not fully nor accurately describe what nation you are talking about. You are VERY insecure if that offended you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 God is for all people of the earth, not only to bless USA Guess he shouldn't save the British Queen, defend NZ or bless anyone's house, then. If he existed, that is. Sheesh, can't believe the insecuritities or the chip on the shoulders of some people! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FYI Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 This old "debate" again. And it's funny the people that are making a big deal about the "American Continent" here are the same ones that argue that North & South America are "different continents" when it comes to the Olympics & how the IOC views it. Go figure. Is it no wonder then that the IOC sees it as such. This is just my own opinion. Perhaps you should become a member of the IOC then, so you could let your "own opinion" be known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 This old "debate" again. And it's funny the people that are making a big deal about the "American Continent" here are the same ones that argue that North & South America are "different continents" when it comes to the Olympics & how the IOC views it. Go figure. Is it no wonder then that the IOC sees it as such. What I wonder is what do those who get heated about the use of the word Americans to describe citizens of the Union suggest to use in its place coloquially? US Citizens? US Americans? Rebel colonists? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob2012 Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 Burger eating invasion monkeys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zekekelso Posted December 11, 2013 Report Share Posted December 11, 2013 Next up... how dare people from New Zealand call themselves Kiwis. Those are birds. Or fruits or something. PS - I'm it makes some of you happy, the country is pronounced 'Merica, the people 'Mericans (or better yet, "real 'Mericans") all with a Southern accent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ofan Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 What about Australia being called a continent? Does that upset Kiwi's? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 What about Australia being called a continent? Does that upset Kiwi's? Our mere existence upsets many kiwis. Seriously, though, if we talk about both of us collectively, we always say Australasia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympic Fan Darcy Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 What about Australia being called a continent? Does that upset Kiwi's? Did some research last night cause that is exactly what I thought but New Zealand isn't part of the continent of Australia. New Zealand is part of the sub-continent of Zealandia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistercorporate Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 Seriously, this speaks to the lack of real tangible Olympics related news that we're all splitting hairs over Australia/New Zealand and Canada/USA, some of the closest and friendliest national relationships around. What's next, Cuba/Venezuela, Dubai/Abu Dhabi and India/Israel? lol, 2015 couldn't come soon enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 Did some research last night cause that is exactly what I thought but New Zealand isn't part of the continent of Australia. New Zealand is part of the sub-continent of Zealandia. Gondwanaland rules! Funnily enough, however, I just looked up a map of the continental plates before you posted, and NZ straddles the Indo-Australian plate (north island appears to be on this side) and the Pacific plate (which has South island). That said, I'm not going to claim expertise on planetary plate tectonics. Talk about splitting frickin' hairs though. The fact is, there's a great mismatch in many areas if you're comparing linguistics, cultural, geographic and political classifications. I don't see that many people have too much of a problem navigating those differences, though. Just occurred to me ... the few times I've mistakenly asked a Canadian "are you American" (ie, before they give it away by saying "oot"), they seem to be mortally offended, rather than congratulating me for correct terminology! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ofan Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 lol, 2015 couldn't come soon enough 2015? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intoronto Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 2015? Too see who bids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ofan Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 Too see who bids. Idk what he's saying, because GB should be pretty busy this February.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenadian Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 Just imagine of there was still a Confederate States of America! I think would have just been easier had they named everything differently. Nornia. Sulsura. Unisionia. Or something like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athensfan Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 Guys relax. Canadians are hardly wanting to be American like someone here offensively generalized. Not even sure why intoronto brought it up as an irritant as I don't know anyone here who has a problem with Americans calling themselves citizens of America, however inaccurate that statement may be from a purely detail-oriented perspective. It's a minor matter. I refer to citizens of the USA as Americans and noone else, it's a noble title and Americans earned all the positive connotations associated with it. Canadians are proud of our country to the point of being condescending bastards. There was a time back in the 80's when Canadians did have an inferiority complex but those days are long gone, nowadays (the past 5 years at least) there's more Americans applying for Canadian citizenship/residency than there are Canadians applying the other way, Canada is a damn good place to live in and we welcome the world to immigrate here provided they are good people and don't bring any negative bagage with them. That being said we share a common North American culture and we love our American brothers and sisters, anyone who messes with the US messes with us. Oh, please. That was in good fun and not a serious statement. If you find it "offensive" then you're misunderstanding the tenor of the post. I do find it surprising that some are arguing that the words "America" and "Americans" have been unjustly appropriated by the USA and should be available for use by all residents of North and South America. Obviously everybody doesn't really want to be American. That was a playful jibe. Seriously, this speaks to the lack of real tangible Olympics related news that we're all splitting hairs over Australia/New Zealand and Canada/USA, some of the closest and friendliest national relationships around. What's next, Cuba/Venezuela, Dubai/Abu Dhabi and India/Israel? lol, 2015 couldn't come soon enough The bid process has become much less exciting. That's for sure. Or perhaps we're just jaded. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zekekelso Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 So... where exactly is Old Zeeland? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runningrings Posted December 12, 2013 Report Share Posted December 12, 2013 The Netherlands? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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