mickybrit

The War of Independence was fought by Brits v Brits. Even after the war the Brit Colonists choose this as the very first American Flag.

MrEmjoy

I want one!!!

sarah64

The "Brit" is their description lol, not mine, I'm English through and through. But I get your point.

Wilto

Guess where I'm moving to in 10 days!!!

Pensacola Florida, the same city as Bradford Lass.

Thankfully I'm going to miss the ejaculations of a nation on July 4th.

I once spent a family holiday in California on July 4th, my dad got into an argument when some dude realised we were Welsh (he thought English of course), he said we saved you guys in World War 2! If it wasn't for us you would be German!

Now my dad is a WW2 fanatic. I'll leave it to your imagination who won that argument.

It's all rather sickening but at least they are proud of their nation unlike the UK, where the ones who champion the national identity and try and uphold the pride of a nation are the ones who are shot down as negative backward racist and bigoted cowards.

exvj

I always say - yes the winners in 1776 got free health care for life ! - usually takes a while to sink in ....

I reckon the 2 main factors in the 2nd WW, were the Battle of Britain and the Russian effort
The UK had more dead than the US though it had one third of the population.
The Soviet Union lost 23 million - US and UK were a few hundred thousand combined

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

Lets not mention the war:

The percentage of Americans of British Isles (including Ireland) descent who had ancestors in America in 1776 is tiny - they are FAR more likely to have had revolution suppressing British Troops in their ancestry than American revolutionaries

population of the US in 1776 was 2.5 million

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/...ns/001798.html

Jaxbar

[QUOTE=Wilto;7704968]Guess where I'm moving to in 10 days!!!

Pensacola Florida, the same city as Bradford Lass.

Thankfully I'm going to miss the ejaculations of a nation on July 4th.

QUOTE]

I just went to the Farmers Market downtown, got chatting to some people who are campaigning to support heathcare and had a walk around the beautiful Palafox pier area.

If I have a positive outlook Pensacola is actually a pretty cool place, I also noticed lots of new businesses so things may be looking up.

You will miss July 4th but may be just in time for the first tropical storm
Seriously good luck with the move!

tamms_1965

What she said.

Kaffy Mintcake

Or they could be like my ancestors, who supported England and went to Canada prior to the revolution.

Steerpike

You are crazy to want to miss a great day of BBQ and spectacular fireworks! Let me ask you this - do you read a whole lot into 'Bonfire night' (Nov 5) in the UK? Are you really celebrating the attempted destruction of parliament, or are you simply having a good time with family doing things you've done since you were a kid? July 4th is just a day off for most people, a time to have fun. Stop reading too much into it!

You can look at WW2 in many ways. The Europeans duked it out on their own for a long time before the US got involved, and fought many pivotal battles that were instrumental in the outcome. BUT - had the US not gotten involved, we WOULD be speaking German by now. They poured in massive resources (equipment and ... 12 MILLION soldiers!) at a time when the Allies were running out. So the UK perspective tends to be, we fought long and hard long before the US got involved; the US perspective tends to be, had we not got involved, you would have lost. Both valid.

As an aside, I was reading this page, which confirms that neither the UK nor the US suffered many casualties compared to other nations. What shocked me about these numbers was the fact that China (an Ally) lost 2.2 million in 'battle deaths' - almost 50% of their armed forces; second only to Russia.

Generally, if you want to be happy here, you may as well accept there are two sides to most things, and you are going to hear the US side more when you are here ... if you let this 'sicken' you, you are setting yourself up for failure ...

YoungSteve17

Ill be using this comeback to that comment this 4th of July.
Jimmy Car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPMNx...e=channel_page

Bob

I doubt it...

You've got way to much faith in the Brit nation being able to learn a foreign language in 60 odd years...

Jaxbar

I hear what you are saying and I have for the last few years just tried to enjoy the fireworks etc but if you go the the organised events as I did last year there are 3 hours worth of patriotic songs to endure, that is very unlike bonfire night.

I completely accept this is my problems but I feel similar to when Princess Diana died -no escape and people thinking you are heartless because you dont buy into it all.
Here it is much more than a party, they announced in Church today that next sunday it will be a celebration of being a citizen of the best country in the world, so that is 3 days of it!!

SecretGarden

You'll notice we have one flying in my avatar. We got ours on eBay. Do a search for "Grand Union Flag". Good luck!

~SecretGarden

nettlebed

And in case, Tovarishch Bob, it would likely be Russian overlords, not German.

nettlebed

Depends where you go, I suppose. In Longview, WA, the annual display is about 30-35 minutes of a mix of classical and popular songs, with no patriotic stuff (no Lee Greenwood, thank Cthulhu!). I don't even remember them doing The Star Spangled Banner once in the seven years I've been there, though once they did The Stars and Stripes Forever, but I just translated that into Be Kind To Our Four-Legged Friends.

Of course, since I got the passport last November, I should be outraged if they don't play something patriotic. Should, but won't. :-)

I hear you. The day it happened, my wife and I were in Interlaken in Switzerland, and I swear we had people stopping us to share their grief when they heard us speaking English. It was really bizarre to have some Japanese come up to us, bow, and apologise for our heartbreak!!

For us, the real tragedy was that one of our cats died the same day.
You're in the wrong corner. Head up to the Pacific NW: things are pretty different up here!