Proud to be a (your country here).

[OldGit]

The only problem with France is that it is full of Frenchmen.

This is precisely what I've always said.  The actual land is OK, and it's 2½ times bigger than the UK.  When we'd thrashed them in the 100 years' war, we should have made the blighters swap.

[xSilverPhinx]

I don't get all the anti-french sentiment, what's that all about?

[Scissorlegs]

I don't get all the anti-french sentiment, what's that all about?

Just for the record, I'm half French.

I bloody hate the French!

[En_Route]

I like the Netherlands, but I'm not a patriot. Main problem that I have with the country that it is too crowded and too small. It is about time that we invade our neighboring countries to get some "Lebensraum"  . In the past we hated and disliked the Germans, nowadays the hate is gone and the dislike went to the French. We still don't trust German politicians, especially when they team-up with the "Froggies".

....
I've no huge jingoistic feelings for the UK, but I feel we're still a pretty good place to live.  I like the place very much.  And I seriously dislike France.  

The only problem with France is that it is full of Frenchmen.

After President Hollande raises taxes on the wealthy, so will London.

[Stevil]

Oh, is En Route back?
Welcome back 

[En_Route]

Oh, is En Route back?
Welcome back 

Yes,thanks. Just took time out to top up the medication .

[The Magic Pudding]

After President Hollande raises taxes on the wealthy, so will London.

Oh great more confusion.  The Netherlands used to be Holland but the people are Dutch and my country used to be New Holland and now there's a president Hollande but he's not Dutch.   

[Crow]

I bloody hate the French!

Why?

[TheWalkingContradiction]

I like the Netherlands, but I'm not a patriot. Main problem that I have with the country that it is too crowded and too small. It is about time that we invade our neighboring countries to get some "Lebensraum"  . In the past we hated and disliked the Germans, nowadays the hate is gone and the dislike went to the French. We still don't trust German politicians, especially when they team-up with the "Froggies".

....
I've no huge jingoistic feelings for the UK, but I feel we're still a pretty good place to live.  I like the place very much.  And I seriously dislike France.  

The only problem with France is that it is full of Frenchmen.

I positively adore the French, and their all-too-human foibles (a number of which I share - especially being insecure and needing to be nearly worshipped) endear them to me; further, France and the Francophone part of Belgium are my favorite travel destinations.  I always get on the good side of French speakers by starting with a dramatic invocation in French about how much I adore the language and hope they will excuse any errors in French since I don't have the fortune to live in their country.  (Yes, I can be sly.)  In fact, an old man and woman in Brussels assumed I was Canadian since I spoke French and was too "nice" to be American.  

Years ago I used to post on a gay French message board and was open about being American and living in New York.  My signature won me a lot of friends: Que le monde ne soit pas anglophone!  (May the world not be anglophone!)  I have nothing against the English language; I just love French and hate to see it lose ground.  (I doubt I will ever endear myself to anglophone Canadians or Belgian Flemings--although I also adore the sound of Flemish/Dutch in an almost erotic way.  Not German, though.  Flemish/Dutch has a delicious quality that German does not, in my all-too-opinionated opinion.  Wish I could speak Dutch too.)

Ironically, my closest friend in Paris, who is French, hates the French.     She wishes she were English.

As for being American...  I am proud of many American people and the great things they do to help others in the world, but I am ashamed of my government and the things it does to hurt others in the world.  I treasure some aspects of life in the United States and recoil from some others.  Thus, I am proud to be American and ashamed to be American at the same time.

Still, I am human first and American second.

[Tom62]

Oh great more confusion.  The Netherlands used to be Holland but the people are Dutch and my country used to be New Holland and now there's a president Hollande but he's not Dutch.   

Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. It was a independent province, part of a union of 7 provinces (the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands), that rebelled against the Spanish occupation. By the 17th century, Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the Republic. That is the  reason, why the name Holland is better known in the world than the Netherlands (the Kingdom of the Netherlands was founded in 1815). Nowadays Holland consists of the two Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland.

The name Dutch is very confusing. It was given to us by the English, so we will just put all the blame on them. It all has to do with the German group of languages spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany

During the Renaissance in the 16th century, differentiation began to be made by opposing duytsch (modern Duits) "German" and nederduytsch "Low German" with dietsch or nederlandsch "Dutch", a distinction that is echoed in English later the same century with the terms High Dutch "German" and Low Dutch "Dutch". However, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. In modern Dutch, Duits has narrowed in meaning to refer to "German", Diets went out of common use because of its Nazi associations and now somewhat romantically refers to older forms of Dutch, whereas Hollands and Vlaams are sometimes used to name the language as a whole for the varieties spoken in respectively The Netherlands and Belgium. Nederlands, the official Dutch word for "Dutch", did not become firmly established until the 19th century.

[cncracer]

There are times when I am proud of my country, and times I just hang my head in shame. We have had the highs of science, and expanding the knowledge base of humans, yet we will tie the hands of those who are studying those advances due to religious views. We have elected those who in my view committed crimes against humanity under the cover of fighting terrorism while pushing their religion on cultures that drink a different flavor cool aid. We have bridged prejudice to one group only to target other groups to discriminate against. It looks like we take two steps forward and one back.   

[jumbojak]

I identify as a Virginian first and an American second. There are at least fifty shades of American and I wish people in other parts of the world would realize this although I understand we can seem like a warmongering bully to outside observers.

Its a shame we only seem to be good at war. I for one blame the Military Channel.

[Firebird]

I am proud to be an American, but it isn't blind love. I've often been ashamed by the things we've done or the ignorance we display. I definitely criticize the US quite a bit, but only because I care, dammit! And, as was brought up before, this country is huge and multilayered, and I don't think a lot of people realize that. I actually got a little bit defensive with a Turkish cab driver last week who talked about how he didn't like the US because it has had imperialist tendencies. And I admitted that at times we have, but not everyone in the country is like that. He seemed to accept that, as he mentioned he'd met other Americans who had said similar things.
I think the big problem with the US goes beyond mere patriotism; rather, it's the concept of "American exceptionalism", the idea that our country is somehow extra-special, can do no wrong, has a mission to spread democracy to other countries, and that to criticize it is unpatriotic. Drives me crazy. It's a horrible example of arrogance and hubris. It also causes people to assume that we can't learn anything from what other countries do. The health care debate was one of the worst examples of this: Republicans were constantly talking about how we already had the "best health care system in the world", which was utter crap, yet I think they actually believed it.

[The Magic Pudding]

I actually got a little bit defensive with a Turkish cab driver last week who talked about how he didn't like the US because it has had imperialist tendencies. 

Ha ha that's funny, did you ask him if he'd heard of the Ottoman Empire?  Not the foot rest specialty store, the vast empire that lasted over 600 years.

[Asmodean]

After President Hollande raises taxes on the wealthy, so will London.

Oh great more confusion.  The Netherlands used to be Holland but the people are Dutch and my country used to be New Holland and now there's a president Hollande but he's not Dutch.   

...And New Holland tractors. Are they Fords or not?