Quoting richierich:

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For the record, I am not jealous of the United States or its citizens - and I can't think why most Europeans would be?

I'm French Canadian and I'm not jealous one second of The U.S. My place is far from perfect (the Quebec province are the more taxed place on Northern America), but it's certainly a good place to live.

Quoting skipnet50:

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I am not qualified to make such a comment about Prime Minister Brown, watching from across the pond as I do. Even a visit to the UK would not offer me much additional insight in regards to the politics of Great Britain, sorry pal, just not my place, nor my style.

The point Richie was trying to make is that we are very happy to taunt and make fun of our own politicians and hold them up to perhaps unreasonable standards. Brown will probably be called Bottle Brown (if not already) and Blair was referred to in the media as Bliar.

We have always had a tradition in our comedy of poking fun at them going back may years (e.g. with TV comedy like "Not the Nine O'clock News" - and it was noted very quickly (and felt newsworthy) that Brown appeared to have no sense of humour at Prime Minister Question time. We have never understood the apparent awe that US media feels towards its leaders and have always believed it was healthy to cross examine them (our leaders).

Pauls:

As are we, all the time, it is favorite sport. But ...you may have seen one of my earlier posts. Where is mentioned an old saw. I can call my sister a b..., but she is MY sister, if you call her a b... we are going to have at it.    

Similarly, Bush is our President and we can say what we will about him, right wrong or indifferent. But juist as I lack sufficient information to judge the President of France (Monsieur Sarkozy), you lkacksufficient information to slander the President of the United States, and i don't care which side of the political fence he sits on.

For example much has been made about certain ummm foibles Mr. Bush has. His inability to pronounce nuclear (nucular) comes to mind, to which my response is get over it. I remember a President of the United States who graduated school as a Nuclear Engineer...and he couldn't say it either...his name...Jimmy Carter. Sometimes it comes down to matter of perception, glass half full or half empty if you will. I am sure you remember the famed Mission Accomplished banner, I saw that and completely understood the context in which it was placed relative to the U.S. S. Enterprise completing ITS mission, it in no way implied to me that THE Mission was accomplished, but to those intent on playing Power games they chose the half-empty interpretation. As they continue to do, and they continue to be wrong.

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Quoting lmoelleb:

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Quoting AESP_pres:

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... the Quebec province are the more taxed place on Northern America) ...

I would have guessed Greenland took that spot by a large margin, but it does appear they get of a bit lighter than in the "southern parts" of the Kingdom - only 37-46%.

We have income tax, sale tax, taxes disguise as a remedy insurance, tax on smoking product, taxes disguise as electricity cost, taxe on taxes and much more. And we have to pay them to 2 "states" : the country (Canada) and the Province... even the municipality charge taxes. But, I like my place anyway

What I find ironic is that whereas many Americans seem to be opposed to "big government" and would like to have as little (federal) government involvement as possible, at the same time they come across as being easily offended and all rallying behind the president whenever that very same government is questioned. By comparison, if someone with a different nationality would call the Dutch Prime Minister names or criticize his policies, it wouldn't come to my mind to call that "slander" (and I doubt it would be any different for the majority of my countrymen). My first inclination would be to see if there's any orgininality and humour in whatever the Dutch PM would be called... 

Perhaps it's just a cultural difference. A different hypothesis could be that we Europeans, being citizens of less influential countries than the US, are hence less inclined to take ourselves (including our leaders) that seriously (a sense of relativity makes life that much easier as well...). It might be that when you're a citizen of the number one global power, you're more or less forced to take your leader a bit more seriously. It always strikes me that whenever I cross the US/Canadian border, you immediately notice how Canadians are so much more laid back than many of their US counterparts, who by comparison - in my perception anyway - get all worked up and excited fairly easily (sometimes even bordering hysteria - no offense intended).

Final remark: whilst you may question if any foreigner is ever sufficiently well informed to judge another country's leadership, it is a fact that European news media pay much more attention to what's going on in the US than vice versa. E.g. the recent votings in Iowa and New Hampshire were all over the European media. Whenever I'm in the US and watch a news bulletin, it strikes me how little attention is being paid to what's happening outside the US. As soon as I leave the US again, I always have the feeling I've got a lot of catching up to do on world affairs.

Just my two cents. And once again: in no way intended to be offensive to anyone.

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Mikkel:

Don't put words in my mouth. I did NOT say I did not know much about what goes on on your side of the  pond  I know far more than I like, I have to...I said I am not qualified to judge the politics in another country on the basis of what I do know. To gain that level of confiidence would take a far more intimate knowledhe than I possess. But, yes I stand by what I said about socialism and our health care system, and I repeat our system is not perfect as demonstrated recently by the young girl who died while her insurance carrier dithered over her kidney transplant.

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Quoting skipnet50:

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U.S. S. Enterprise completing ITS mission

Technically, I believe the U.S.S. Enterprise was on a 5-year mission...