What's America Like?

[Evolution.]

In Kentucky we name cities with French connections: Versailles (we pronounce it ver-sails).

Post coding gone wrong?

 

[Pupik]

He's being sarcastic.

 

[Evolution.]

That's some odd sarcasm.

 

[Pupik]

I meant ironic, which is the misuse of irony.

 

[Danoff]

In America people talk funny and they drive on the wrong side of the road .

I deserved that.

America is self-loathing. Americans are some of the most unpatriotic self-loathing people on the planet (see most of the previous posts in this thread). If you ever want to listen to people b*tch about their country, come to America.

 

[HACKr]

I deserved that.

America is self-loathing. Americans are some of the most unpatriotic self-loathing people on the planet (see most of the previous posts in this thread). If you ever want to listen to people b*tch about their country, come to America.

Yeah, I'm kinda guilty of that. But you can complain about any other country too.

Some people, though, actually try to do something about it.

 

[Dave A]

America is self-loathing. Americans are some of the most unpatriotic self-loathing people on the planet (see most of the previous posts in this thread). If you ever want to listen to people b*tch about their country, come to America.

A lot of people do the same in England, tbh I think generally, all over the world people are becoming less patriotic, I know I'm not very patriotic.

 

[wfooshee]

Apologies in advance for the length. . .


Our civil legal system is based on everything being somebody else's fault. In any country in the world, an old woman spilling hot coffee in her lap just had an accident. Here, she was assaulted by unknown dangers without warning, and unfairly assumed to be knowledgable in the ways of coffee serving. Because of this, insurance is a scam. If I had understood insurance when I was in high school, guess what I'd be selling right now? In no other industry can you sit your fat butt at your desk and have more people than you can handle coming in to your office to get a product they don't understand, but are REQUIRED BY LAW to have!

Speaking of insurance is a scam: You have to prove nothing to be able to drive, once you've demonstrated acceptable proficiency for parking at age 16. I'm 49, and NOBODY has given a crap about whether I can even see, yet I renew my license by mail (now online) every 6 years. People complain about how badly everybody drives, yet this possible connection with skills testing never comes up. . . About half the people don't use the mirrors, and my biggest pet peeve for highway driving is waiting behind someone in Cruise Control Wars: it takes them 23 minutes to pass a truck, then just as they clear the truck and move over, they SPEED UP! Why they couldn't speed up to actually pass the truck. . . . .?

As for driving everywhere, stuff is just too far apart. We have the space, and we use it. The closest place to my house to buy a gallon of milk is 1.5 miles, and I live within the city limits, not some out-of-the way rural dead end. Our shopping habits are different, too. We don't walk down to the market at the end of the block and shop for the evening meal, then prepare it. We buy groceries at a 50,000 square foot supermarket for 2 weeks or a month at a time. We have big refrigerators (mine is 25 cubic feet) and many have freezers nearly as large.

Everybody drives SUVs because they think they are safe. The people who drive them are the ones who would have driven station wagons in the 60s. They drove Minivans in the 80s. Now they drive SUVs. Nobody makes station wagons any more, and nobody half-cool would be caught dead in a minivan. My own preference is a hot hatch, or a roadster.

As for President Bush being an idiot, I disagree wholeheartedly. The media is whining about our boys being killed in some foreign land that we have no business being in, and 90% of the American public cannot distinguish editorialization from news reporting. This is the same media that wondered what the hell was taking so long after 9/11, why wasn't anyone finding those responsible and hunting them down. Well, we are. The media expected (for some reason known only to them) a 60-day effort and all would be well. Bush said at the very beginning that it was a years-long effort. As for being in Iraq or not, we acted on information available at the time. The information turned out to be wrong, some say, or maybe not. See this thread. That falls under "If you harbor terrorists, we will come after you." What must be remembered is that if we don't take this to them, they will bring it to us. Or has everyone forgotten that they already have, and have been doing for more than 30 years? As for how many times in this thread Bush has been called an idiot, I haven't seen anybody try to back that up. Fair enough, it's your right, even your responsibility as an American to criticize the government. Just do it constructively, without buzzwords and empty statements.

As for differences place to place, I've lived in the west, having been born in Oklahoma. I've lived in Baltimore, Florida, Alabama, and Germany, for a time. (My dad's company was a military contractor, so we travelled a bit.) I find the northern cities to be hideously expensive for no good reason that I can fathom. You need to fill a cooler with ice, an 8-pound bag here is about a buck and a half, maybe 2 at the most. In Connecticut on a trip 10 years ago, 4 pounds was $3.50! And it comes out of the sky up there! People are friendlier in the country than in the cities, north or south, and rednecks abound everywhere, not just the south. These are the guys whose manhood is apparently called into question by any sort of action from anyone around them, triggered by anything they might say.

It is apparently the law in Louisiana that a bridge be built at least 2 inches higher than the roadway it serves. That's my own observation. Here are some real laws, just in case you're still wondering what it's like here:

It is illegal in Oklahoma to drive reading a comic book. Whaling is also illegal in Oklahoma. But in Alabama it is illegal to drive while blindfolded. In Georgia it is legal to commit simple battery if provoked by "fighting words." (See "redneck," above.) To fish the Ohio River in Kentucky, you must have an Indiana fishing license. In California, it is illegal to shoot game from a moving vehicle, except for whales(!) In Chicago, you are prohibited from eating in a building that is on fire.

I don't know if it's an American issue or if it's everywhere, but apparently instant gratification is a necessity in life. My 21-year-old daughter can't get a job, but doesn't have "YEARS" to go to school for a degree. She bought a guitar and a music book, that night found she couldn't play like Stanley Jordan (as if she even knows who that is!) and put it away, never touched it again. Of course, if she had that degree, she'd wonder why nobody would start her in upper management at 7 figures.

We have almost no trains for recreational travel, only for commuting. You want to go somewhere on vacation, you fly. Of course, nobody can actually afford to fly, so you buy all your groceries with a credit card that gives you airline miles. Barring that, you drive. Another reason for the planes instead of trains is the sheer size of the place. London to Geneva, straight-line, is less than from my house to my sister-in-law's house in Miami. I haven't even gone to a different state for that trip, and we have 50 of them!!!! (OK, 48 that are actually connected together.) My son lives further away from me than the furthest toe of Italy is from London, and he's not even halfway across the map! Miami to Seattle is like London to Rome, back to London, then back again to Rome, then maybe back as far as Milano.

Lastly, all of our professional sports champions are World Champions. We don't bother inviting other countries, because, well, they just aren't as good as we are!

 

[Delvesy]

Speaking of strange US laws, is there not one where it is illegal to shoot someone if they steal a bicycle from a preacher's house, unless you shoot them with a bow & arrow instead, in which case it's legal?

I think I read that once.

 

[TeamLosiRacer]

Speaking of strange US laws, is there not one where it is illegal to shoot someone if they steal a bicycle from a preacher's house, unless you shoot them with a bow & arrow instead, in which case it's legal?

I think I read that once.

That doesent sound strange to me. Us Americans love the Hunt and a good challenge.

 

[Kylehnat]

wfooshee for teh win 👍

My input about driving everywhere: As has been said, our "stuff" is far away. My parents live 3 miles from the nearest anything (in this case, a supermarket). Even where I live in Seattle, I'm a half mile away from the nearest market, and that one sucks, so I go to a market 1.5 miles away. If I had a car, you'd better believe I'd take it, as I buy groceries for at least the next 2 weeks, so it's a lot of stuff.

Next point: Our towns and cities are not pedestrian friendly. The street outside my parents' house (where I grew up) has no sidewalks. I used to have a friend who lived a quarter mile away. Walking there would risk stepping through the weeds, and possibly stepping in dog "business". If I had been old enough to drive, I would have.

Last week, while staying with my parents, I was in town, and I wanted to go to Target, Barnes and Noble, and the ATM across the street from both. Walking around in this particular area is a suicide mission, because motorists are incredibly aggressive, and don't like stopping for pedestrians. Therefore, I drove to all three, even though they're all within walking distance of each other (and it was also 95 degrees outside ).

 

[McLaren]

Speaking of strange US laws, is there not one where it is illegal to shoot someone if they steal a bicycle from a preacher's house, unless you shoot them with a bow & arrow instead, in which case it's legal?

I think I read that once.

You can probably find it in one of these links.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-15,GGLD:en&q=Strange+American+laws

For everyone else who is interested in strange laws of the US, this search has a bunch of them. We even have a series of books on strange laws in the US.

In 1 state, I know it is illegal to slurp your soup.
What I don't know is whether these wierd laws are actually inforced, and/or are brought up in your case if you committed 1 of these laws during another crime.

 

[Sakiale]

What... the... heck...!?

In Texas you are more likely to get the death penalty for horse hustlin'... erm, rustlin' (stealing horses) then you are for murder.

 

[a6m5]

In 1 state, I know it is illegal to slurp your soup.

I hope it's not Oregon. There is only one way to eat a miso soup.

 

[McLaren]

I hope it's not Oregon. There is only one way to eat a miso soup.

I don't know but according to 1 link, these are classified as dumb laws in Oregon.

Babies may not be carried on the running boards of a car.
Drivers may not pump their own gas.

Yeah, how many officers inforce that last one?


Anyone who wanted to know about America, can learn this. We have retarded people in office making retarded laws.

 

[a6m5]

Drivers may not pump their own gas.

I didn't know it was actually a law, but that one's true. We can't pump our own gas at conventional gas stations. If it's one of those wholesale/fleet gas stations, then you do it yourself.

Good and Bad of not pumping your own gas:

Good - It's safe at night. Nice in cold or rainy weather. Helps create entry level jobs.

Bad - When the attendants are slacking(late at night). When they are slammed busy.

I presonally prefer pumping my own gas, but I guess it's not that bad.

 

[wfooshee]

Drivers may not pump their own gas.

I pulled up to a pump in Alabama (not to generalize the populace of that great state) once, and drove on through when I saw the guy across from my pump smoking while he pumped. I mean, HOW STUPID DO YOU HAVE TO BE??!?!!???!?! Maybe it's as simple as he couldn't read the small warning signs, and fuel being flammable hadn't occurred to him.

 

[TeamLosiRacer]

In Memphis, it is illegal for a woman to drive by herself, unless a man is walking or running in front of the vehicle, waving a red flag in order to warn approaching pedestrians and motorists.

Brilliant Stuff!

 

[Snortin Norton]

I pulled up to a pump in Alabama (not to generalize the populace of that great state) once, and drove on through when I saw the guy across from my pump smoking while he pumped. I mean, HOW STUPID DO YOU HAVE TO BE??!?!!???!?! Maybe it's as simple as he couldn't read the small warning signs, and fuel being flammable hadn't occurred to him.

A burning cigarette isn't hot enough to ignite gasoline.

Just so you don't freak out next time.

 

[FoolKiller]

To fish the Ohio River in Kentucky, you must have an Indiana fishing license.

Somebody sold you a big one. I really hope you weren't told that by someone in Kentucky. That is funny though, I will have to try that one on a friend and have them go by a one-day Indiana fishing permit.

Did you ever notice that the Ohio River borders Kentucky along three states?

You can fish the Ohio River from Kentucky at the Indiana border with an Indiana license, if you are a resident of Indiana, but there is no law saying you have to. A Kentucky license works just as well on both sides. This is also the law for Ohio and Illinois. You can have either license to fish either side.

See 2006 Kentucky Fishing and Boating Regulations: Bordering Waters

The same goes for the Mississippi River as well.


The problem with the funny laws or stupid laws that are listed everywhere is that they are outdated and have been updated or forgotten. One example is that in Kentucky you were considered sober until "you could not hold on to the ground." Now it is .08 blood-alcohol level, but that still gets passed around.

So for every dumb or funny law you hear there is probably an update or it has been forgotten to the point that it isn't enforced.

 

[Danny]

Why are so many state borders straight lines?

That's so wacked out.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I have been to quite a few states from north to south, east to west and from what I have seen in my 29 years, most of America is the same. Lots of angry people no matter where you go. Almost all roads in the northern states are absolutely horrible. Pretty much most of the stereotypes you see of America are true. Like mentioned in this thread, everone over here eats way too much. I dont know what the percentage is for obese americans but it has to be a lot higher than the healthy Americans. Yeah thats pretty much America for you. When you think of America just picture Burger King or Mcdonalds and you will have an idea of what most people look like.
At least over here most women have nice teeth and they are shaved.
I have to admit that there are quite a few Americans with nice teeth. Teeth are very important over here. I have noticed life is a lot easier when you have nice teeth over here.
There are also a LOT of heavy SUV everywhere you go. People consume gas over here like its water.

 

[Duke]

A burning cigarette isn't hot enough to ignite gasoline.

Just so you don't freak out next time.

A lit cigarette isn't hot enough to ignite liquid gasoline, maybe. But it's plenty hot enough to ignite gasoline vapors, which are the real danger, since they are what cause explosions.

 

[McLaren]

I have been to quite a few states from north to south, east to west and from what I have seen in my 29 years, most of America is the same. Lots of angry people no matter where you go. Almost all roads in the northern states are absolutely horrible. Pretty much most of the stereotypes you see of America are true. Like mentioned in this thread, everone over here eats way too much. I dont know what the percentage is for obese americans but it has to be a lot higher than the healthy Americans. Yeah thats pretty much America for you. When you think of America just picture Burger King or Mcdonalds and you will have an idea of what most people look like.
At least over here most women have nice teeth and they are shaved.
I have to admit that there are quite a few Americans with nice teeth. Teeth are very important over here. I have noticed life is a lot easier when you have nice teeth over here.
There are also a LOT of heavy SUV everywhere you go. People consume gas over here like its water.

Yep. I think this picture says it all.

Naw, but seriously, I think the amount of obese people depend what state you live in. Surprisingly, there aren't that many here in Texas, and I see more "fit" people in California, Hawaii, and Las Vegas (totally understandable though).

 

[Danny]

I've just been on holiday to Blackpool (home of TVR ) Friday to Monday, and it was like obesity central!

Very few people in Europe are like that ^

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

lmao @ mclaren Thats about right. The further north you go in the US the more that pic is correct. Thank god my girlfriend looks more like the girl on the left.
The girl on the right looks just like my neighbor.

 

[Duke]

Nobody who has seen Germans on the beach would ever think that Americans win the prize for "Most Inappropriate Underwear/Bathing Suit For Body Type".

 

[Sakiale]

And ANOTHER reason to move to Europe! Lets see, exotic cars, street legal Skylines and race cars, home of so many great car companies, so beautiful, and now this?

Can I borrow a few million dollars?

 

[Danny]

Nobody who has seen Germans on the beach would ever think that Americans win the prize for "Most Inappropriate Underwear/Bathing Suit For Body Type".

Not by a mile.

 

[Sakiale]

AAH!

Move the camera a foot to the right...

Lets get on topic now. Any other questions about America?