Originally Posted by civilservant

I seriously think any Americans with the 'greatest country in the world' mentality need to see Will McAvoys rant from 'The Newsroom'.

Originally Posted by kimilseung

.....and I hope Peter King does not trot himself out to tell us how terrible terrorism is.

Originally Posted by civilservant

Not that one, the TV show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q49NOyJ8fNA

Originally Posted by steveq

Doubtless, but unless you count these "countless", my view is that, compared to the rest of US crime, its negligible. For a representative statistic, there have been over 3500 gun deaths in the US since Sandy Nook. How many of them were by "recent immigrants" ?

Originally Posted by UkWinds5353

Go tell the families in Boston to cheer up, that their dead family member is only a negligle statistic. Maybe they will agree with you, you think?

Originally Posted by Bluegrass Lass

Everytime I hear people doing that damn "USA" chant, I hate it. It horrifies me. I don't even know what words to use to describe how it makes me feel. It's like this childish "we're better than you are" mentality or something. All I can say is, not every native-born USC feels the need to chant "USA" like it's some kind of Walmart cheer (subliminal brainwashing?). It's just so..so...so immature and embarrassing.

Originally Posted by UkWinds5353

Example of a cultural divide. I understood the actions of the crowd's cheering as a way to let off steam. Most american probably spotted that right away.

Originally Posted by civilservant

And yet when someone makes a Black humor joke (the British way to blow off steam' it's 'completely unacceptable'.

Originally Posted by dakota44

Originally Posted by Lion in Winter
It's the national level of fear I don't understand. I lived in London when the IRA bombings were happening, and then there were the July bombings a few years ago. There was no suggestion of a "lockdown" in London, shutting down all public transport or closing the airspace.

Could not find the original post, so pasted the above from a response. You don't remember them closing airspace because you never had anyone hijack 4 planes in one day and crash 3 of them into buildings killing more than 3,000 people. Had you had that experience, you can bet your butt air space might well have been shut down in the wake of a terror attack. Pity the people that make the decision not to shut it down and then see a hijacking or worse. They would be crucified for that failure.

As or locking the city or certain parts of it down, it has a few specific purposes. When you have suspects at large after such an attack you want to isolate them and close off their options for points of exit. Secondly you want the streets clear so that the only vehicular movement will be law enforcement and also so that suspects will find it difficult to drive away without sticking out like a sore thumb on empty streets. Thirdly, you keep innocent civilians out of harms way, particularly when you have no idea if there might be other attacks. It is a totally smart move. Nothing to do with your perception of a "national level of fear". Just sound tactics to minimize the possibility of further casualties and to enhance the ability to track down the suspects.

Originally Posted by UkWinds5353

Example of a cultural divide. I understood the actions of the crowd's cheering as a way to let off steam. Most american probably spotted that right away.

Originally Posted by Lion in Winter

Having thought about it, I think that the difference between the "USA, USA" chant and things like the "Engerland" of football or Swing Low Sweet Chariot of rugby is that the USA things carries an aggressive feel of "we're the best, nobody is as good as us in any way and we are going to assert our dominance" whereas the others carry more the meaning of "we support our country/team."