"krauts" must be an American idiomatic, no?

Silly me, didn't even have my transponder on.

Around here you have to transpond as fast as you can just to stay in one place

beam me up, Scotty.

During the Second World War, Americans continued to eat sauerkraut but deprived it of its Germanity by calling it "liberty cabbage."

ha! like the french fries now called "freedom" fries
They are obsessed with being free etc! it is quite odd, not the desire for freedom, but the american obsession with continually saying they are free and good etc.. is a bot like they're reassuring themselves

continually saying they are free and good etc.. is a bot like they're reassuring themselves
No. It is a way of saying/reminding how thankful we are.

I've only left the USA once - for about 8 hours, so I guess one might call me an "American", even though I was born in Paterson N.J., through no choice of my own. (tongue in cheek). I love this country, even NJ! I now live in the state of Rhode Island, which is both one of mind and geographic delineation. I'd love to travel if I had the resourses - maybe some day...
I like a good French fry, if it's not too greasy, with a little ketchup or vinegar. I make a pretty decent slice of French toast too. I despise the term "Freedom Fry" or any other jingoistic idiocy. My own desperate desire for freedom is rooted in the respect that I have for my dead Father and Father-in-law and the deep love that I own for my wife and children, not in some perverse obsession with being superior to anyone, in control of anything beyond my own sphere of family and small community. I hope, wish and work for peace in the whole world in my tiny, possibly pitiful and insignificant way. This is all I can do just now. Those men, my fathers, both suffered severe mental and physical damage in WWII. This doesn’t make them heroes, but the liberation that they helped enable was and is a good thing. This may differ from my country’s current international involvement. This is not the place for that discussion.
Every person that I know is not like me. Each of them is not like any other. I work with people from many parts of the world, and they all lust for kindness, comfort, joy, sanctuary and real love, whether they overtly reveal this to me or not. I am the same.

Well said, OB.

back off, Milo.

Back off from what, etaoin?

Was that a wee tidbit of etaoin's heartfelt advice or was that a threat?

you've tossed out enough of your politics, you can let someone else's slide by.

Or the converse:

Over the urinal at the school where I learned to fly a Cessna was a sign that read "Pilots with low manifold pressure taxi closer."

And please remember that the women appreciate it when you raise your flaps and lower them in the proper sequence.

>>>I hope, wish and work for peace in the whole world in my tiny, possibly pitiful and insignificant way.

Sometimes I feel that way too. I've no illusion of grandeur, and know that I am but one small stitch in a tapestry too large to see.

This is why I feel inspired by this place. The fact that we have members from all over the world, and get along, makes me think that we are all contributing to the enlightenment; the realization that we all have to put on our pants one leg at a time, we all need to eat and poop and have the same basics needs, so we are not so foreign after all.