What would you do if the US invaded?
- Thread starter RoseMartland
- Start date
I remember the name of the company now. It's Lingo Media, funded by CIDA to produce English textbooks for elementary school children, and unapologetically favourable to Canadian culture (I'd seen the books). You just can't buy that kind of advertising anywhere else.
Bear in mind though, that the British Council have similar textbooks out, and has mastered the art of culturla imperialism far better than Canada. Surprisingly enough, USAID is not particularly involved, though Voice of America is very much involved in producing various kinds of pro-US English-teaching materials, some of which I'd come across abroad too, and VOA has done quite a job too.
While your comments above are clearly intended as a joke, make no mistake of its power. A child exposed to Canadian cultural content throughout his school life in the English classroom will be more likely to want to visit Canada than other countries, meaning more money for us. The UK especially understands that too and so invests much money into the British Council. Again, this is the kind of advertising a country can only dream of, with a captive child audience in classrooms across a country.
It's no coincidence that the British Council was formed just prior to WWII to counter Nazi propaganda in South America especially.
Here's one webpage of Lingo Media's:
Lingo Media - Partners
To my surprise, not only is CIDA involved, but so is Canadian Heritage. What interest would they have in producing English-language resources for classrooms in China?
No wonder we pay so much in taxes. Imperialism costs money ya know.
They have no problem smashing a declared enemy's defenses in order to march in, but man-oh-man, the thinking about what to do once there was less than zero. I say less than zero because when one factors in the influences of interests like Halliburton and Blackwater et al, it's almost like it was *designed* to create malcontent among the occupied.
Something has *so* changed about the mentality of American leaders since the days of the Japanese occupation, which is still ranked as the most positively successful occupation of any nation by another in history.
Is there another thread on this board about the occupation of Afghanistan? Because if I get rolling on it here it's going to go three parsecs off thread and I'm going to blow the buffer-stack of the software driving this board before finishing the introductory remarks. :angryfire:
Let's just say, I've had conversations with Russians first made contact with from days nearing the end of the Cold War, who provided what amounts to a check-list of what *not* to do should one feel an overwhelming need to occupy Afghanistan, and it's like the policy makers used that as their to-do list, with our troops getting caught between granite rock-headed policy hacks on one side and an uncompromisingly hard-ass tough place on the other, and even those Russians griping about how 90% of Afghanistan's poppy-crop is ending up in their motherland are expressing a stumped respect for how anyone could hold any kind on line under those circumstances. :angryfire:
You're right when pointing out that the hardware of the forces is not as obsolete as comedians like to say, and you're also correct that people underestimate its power.
We're twice the strength of Australia, which means if Australia and Canada went to war we'd clean their clock - and they are *not* pansies - plus we're three times the power of Sweden and four times the power of Switzerland, both of which are strong enough to justify a legitimate defense of neutrality from superpowers all around.
We only look small because we're standing next to a giant, which is fine... keeps the gaze off.
Good point. I have cousins in the states, and it's amazing how on one hand they presume all eyes of the world are upon them as the vanguard of freedom and democracy, while on the other hand they have this odd notion that nobody knows what they can do such that they'll just have to go out there and prove it.
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"Which of course is another gross exaggeration, but whatever makes you feel good." -Prax
That about sums up your whole post.
Congratulations on becoming a DEPENDENT nation after WWII.
You're the one who's dependent on us.Congratulations on becoming a DEPENDENT nation after WWII.
Last time I checked, the US was self-sufficient in only four strategic minerals (coal, salt, molybdenum, and I can't remember the fourth).
All others minerals required to maintain an industrial society you have to import, although since you've disassembled your iron belt and converted to an "information economy", I guess you don't need them anymore, so I guess we'll just sell them to China.
That whole notion of an "information economy" befuddles me. What kind of "information" are you selling on the world market that other nations will pay for in order for you to have the money to pay for your imports of Chinese manufactured goods?
i wouldnt worry they have inposed so many laws and such its a pain in the ass to cross the border, i wouldnt worry they wouldnt want the headache of trying to cross our border
When Chris Bosh was interviewed by an American reporter about why he accepted the offer to play for the NBA's Miami Heat, rejecting the Raptors offer to retain him.. he made comments which many took to be insulting, but which i sympathized with.
He graciously noted Toronto was a great city, and how warmly he had been accepted there by the fans, and respectfully treated by the organization.. but also stated (paraphrased) how foreign the city felt to him.. from the look, the 'beat' of the city, to the smell of the place.. he'd never really felt at home there, always like an outsider.
I sympathize because that has been my experience with travels in America. What's more i can invariably tell, especially in groups, when i'm amongst Americans or Canadians. The differences might be subtle, and in many cases they are not even that, but they are unmistakable once you recognize them.
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"Which of course is another gross exaggeration, but whatever makes you feel good." -Prax
That about sums up your whole post.
Congratulations on becoming a DEPENDENT nation after WWII.
And by all means, continue to avoid the details of the post and summarizing your responses with (what you think are) witty and smart little quips...... if it makes you feel good.
uke:^ No purpose for that, I just wanted to use it.
Besides, whatever information they're selling us, we can all just download off the internet for free two months before their official release. :lol:
Don't look at me! He's the one bragging about being a dependant nation.
Oh brother...not that threat again.
Hey...how can you roll eyes if you're using BETA?
When you post foolishness...what else is there to do?
I know exactly what you mean. They're hard to describe, but once you've got a sense for it, it's easy to see.
It percolates into other things. I have an associate in the US who told me that about websites. He said when he's surfing the net, that without looking to see if there's a .ca extension, that he can tell when he's on a Canadian site versus a US site. He says they'll look the same, but there's something different about the feel-and-flow.
I asked him what the difference was, and he was stumped trying to describe it exactly, other than to say, "I dunno... they're just easier to navigate and somehow make more sense. If I need info on multinational-company-x products, parts and drivers, I go to multinational-company-x.ca because somehow it's easier to drill down to the information you want than it is on the multinational-company-x.com"
That made me curious, so I did some surfing around, and I could see what he meant, and in the case of websites I think I know what the root cause is: From experience doing biz with the States, they have an over-riding obsession with having to fret about the issue of legal liability, such that they get vapor-locked wondering how to present information.
It's a curious and often sad consequence of the paradox of having freedom of speech guaranteed in the constitution but everything you say can and will be used against you.
Consequently, they fret over their commercial sites to make sure there's nothing in there that can be used against them, such that they'll end up providing no information at all... it will just feel good to look at, and use of the site to glean useful information will be left as a challenge to the user.
Canadian companies and agencies are cut more slack for making mistakes, whereas American companies and agencies can get stapled to the wall for burping upwind, and it's a real six-of-one and half-dozen-of-another situation.
On one hand, Canadian companies get more elbow room to be flexible and take chances while the banks are held on a tighter leash, whereas in the US companies have their feet held to the fire while their banks get to lulu it up, which means sometime US courts are, IMO, too hard on some US companies - like the woman who got to sue a golf course for $50K because a golf-ball she hit bounced off a rock and hit her back on the forehead - while sometimes Canadian courts are not hard enough on companies that deserve a good slap.
The more I look at issues of Canada versus the US, the more I see it as two equal piles of different kinds of bull****, and the only question is which pile of bull**** do you feel more comfortable dealing with.
Why is that a threat?!?
Of course we'd sell the stuff to you first! The cost of shipping is cheaper!
But you're not buying!
So what else are we supposed to do if China's knocking at the door offering to buy?!?
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NOTHING! Who said anything was?!?
I am aware of several mines opening up north in partnership with China!
It's just that, me - as in me, myself and I - would rather the deals be with you! Not that I have any serious issues with Chinese, or Japanese, or Koreans as a people - in some respects they are much easier to deal with on the legalistics - but you're not buying, because you don't *make* anything anymore... not like you used to!
Geez.
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http://tunes.digitalock.com/firstwetakemanhatten.mp3 <-- click for sound track
So anyway EagleSmack, you got the most powerful, second to none and overwhelming attack force on the planet. China and Russia gave up in the air against just the threat of your F-22s (which I still want a few to fly up north like the northern lights, and if your congress and President were not as stupid as our legislators and PM we'd have a couple under NORAD to supe-up which would make a *fortune* under a properly structured technology trade agreement!
@#$%ing Canadians are so depressingly afraid of themselves when it comes to being talented, and Americans are so comfortable with being stupid. Fear and stupidity. Nice combination for a continent.
We have Canucks like they're afraid they'll turn into neanderthals if set free... not like people who think better when unoppressed... it's why so many of the good ones end up down there... you're not afraid of talented people... if you ask a cynical sociologist it would be because all the north-American and European less-thans had to move north because they couldn't compete down south, such that for Canucks, social stability is about RCMP putting a lid on idiots... and then you get a twit thrown out of the Liberal party for being someone who wouldn't suck the inner Ontario-Quebec inner-buddy's club who went shuffling to the Reform party and they gave him copies of C.S.Lewis to read, and now he's in charge of a minority, screwing up the main thing government is supposed to do, which is keep things going with trained deputy-ministers who know what they're doing, as if the good deputy ministers had ever cared about which party was in charge {because they got the idea of the Queen, thus it being clear that the top position is already occupied, thus protected against certain forms of bleed-head who can't be happy unless they're conquering like those guys with the DNA they just found showing that 25% of hostile and irrational ancient brains are still around here thinking like before the discovery of agriculture {God Damn I love American Research! The only thing more extreme was Russian research in neuropsychology from all the guys they had with bullets shot through their brains to study what happens when certain brain parts are gone... }}
http://tunes.digitalock.com/honkytonkbarassociation.mp3 <-- click for change of tune to new theme
We were ahead of you when Bush was in charge, and now we're behind, and now we've got a bunch of evangelical northern apes who think society will be better if Fox News figures out a way to jerk even more out of the head of the 36% who voted for Harper while they lay on their back jerking off waiting for Jesus to return... for they know the situation is bad, but they don't know they're being played... it's like a @#$%ing incarnation of fascism in Canada for maybe the first time (although I've heard there were Nazi parties back east before WWII)... I know people I could give a living to by having them convince Harper when he gets a majority to change the colour of the maple leaf to black, but in fact only 37% of Germans every supported Fascism, and look at what strings the evil H was able to pull with just that.)
Anyway, it's Friday... here's your new National Anthem, written by Bob Dylan in 1982... once again decades ahead of his time:
http://tunes.digitalock.com/bdus.mp3 <-- New American National Anthem because you don't make anything anymore so we have to sell resources to China.
Anyway, while you figure out how to get out of those caves covered with bad commercial ice from those jerks you knew in high-school, I'm going to slip into a dream about trade leading to colonization of first the solar system, and then the galaxy, with lots of money and growth inbetween... http://tunes.digitalock.com/princeigor.mp3 <-- click for sleepy-time tune
Night.
So anyway EagleSmack, you got the most powerful, second to none and overwhelming attack force on the planet. China and Russia gave up in the air against just the threat of your F-22s (which I still want a few to fly up north like the northern lights, and if your congress and President were not as stupid as our legislators and PM we'd have a couple under NORAD to supe-up which would make a *fortune* under a properly structured technology trade agreement!
@#$%ing Canadians are so depressingly afraid of themselves when it comes to being talented, and Americans are so comfortable with being stupid. Fear and stupidity. Nice combination for a continent.
We have Canucks like they're afraid they'll turn into neanderthals if set free... not like people who think better when unoppressed... it's why so many of the good ones end up down there... you're not afraid of talented people... if you ask a cynical sociologist it would be because all the north-American and European less-thans had to move north because they couldn't compete down south, such that for Canucks, social stability is about RCMP putting a lid on idiots... and then you get a twit thrown out of the Liberal party for being someone who wouldn't suck the inner Ontario-Quebec inner-buddy's club who went shuffling to the Reform party and they gave him copies of C.S.Lewis to read, and now he's in charge of a minority, screwing up the main thing government is supposed to do, which is keep things going with trained deputy-ministers who know what they're doing, as if the good deputy ministers had ever cared about which party was in charge {because they got the idea of the Queen, thus it being clear that the top position is already occupied, thus protected against certain forms of bleed-head who can't be happy unless they're conquering like those guys with the DNA they just found showing that 25% of hostile and irrational ancient brains are still around here thinking like before the discovery of agriculture {God Damn I love American Research! The only thing more extreme was Russian research in neuropsychology from all the guys they had with bullets shot through their brains to study what happens when certain brain parts are gone... }}
http://tunes.digitalock.com/honkytonkbarassociation.mp3 <-- click for change of tune to new theme
We were ahead of you when Bush was in charge, and now we're behind, and now we've got a bunch of evangelical northern apes who think society will be better if Fox News figures out a way to jerk even more out of the head of the 36% who voted for Harper while they lay on their back jerking off waiting for Jesus to return... for they know the situation is bad, but they don't know they're being played... it's like a @#$%ing incarnation of fascism in Canada for maybe the first time (although I've heard there were Nazi parties back east before WWII)... I know people I could give a living to by having them convince Harper when he gets a majority to change the colour of the maple leaf to black, but in fact only 37% of Germans every supported Fascism, and look at what strings the evil H was able to pull with just that.)
Anyway, it's Friday... here's your new National Anthem, written by Bob Dylan in 1982... once again decades ahead of his time:
http://tunes.digitalock.com/bdus.mp3 <-- New American National Anthem because you don't make anything anymore so we have to sell resources to China.
Anyway, while you figure out how to get out of those caves covered with bad commercial ice from those jerks you knew in high-school, I'm going to slip into a dream about trade leading to colonization of first the solar system, and then the galaxy, with lots of money and growth inbetween... http://tunes.digitalock.com/princeigor.mp3 <-- click for sleepy-time tune
Night.
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Americans don't have the North American market for stupidity cornered: Canadians elected Trudeau all on their own...
Alcohol, the great facade thinner.
Every post removes layer after layer of the facade. Leaving exactly what some saw from day one.
Excellent post Omi.
Guess being stupid was the way to go, everyone is still trying to be better than us. We still have the number one economy. We will be ok, just hang in there.
I don't think this is going off-topic, hope not. The OP obviously has not read a real novel written by a IMO great author that is part satire, part futuristic speculative 'what if?', memorable characters and a has, as its basis the "USUK" (yes, its very funny too) Alliance between Britain & the US which leads to US Marines landing in Britain to "protect" the Brit's from invasion by an actually non-existent foreign power. Daphne du Maurier's last novel "Rule Britannia" - my edition is shown as © 1972 by Daphne du Maurier, Doubleday & Company, Inc.
I read this in the seventies and have reread it quite a few times since and it has come to mind a lot in this thread, as it mainly focuses on a group of small town inhabitants (most of them eccentric of course - but aren't most Canadians? :lol
No preview unfortunately, but reviews and overview at Google Books: Rule Britannia - Google Books
Rule Britannia - Google Books
There's also the excellent Ultimatum - Exxoneration two-fer by MGen Richard Rohmer, written in the early 70's, where the US invades Canada for the tar sands. Couldn't find an online summary for you guys as the book's been out of print for a while. Rohmer's work focussed on key players in the crisis whereas mine, as noted, looks at average people.
Sorry if this was mistaken as spam - I was really just looking for what I have received: reaction to the subject.
