My country, right or wrong...

[Luca Nicolai]

...sucks! I don't really think you guys may be interested in my country elections, but I must complain with someone. We've been ruled by criminals for five years, our economy is crushed, the vatican seems to consider us a colony and the elections almos came to a stalemate? How can be possible that half of the country still believe in Silvio Berlusconi? Many of you are Americans, so maybe you know...

[M Fnord]

Man, if I had an answer for that things over here in Yankland would be so different right now...
Good to see you kicked Berlusconi to the curb, though. Now, if Prodi's coalition can keep their shit together long enough to actually govern, things might start turning around some.---
Mr. Fnord
Raving blogger
http://www.jihad.net/
"when edison thinks down pipes into special Future Death Machine, in 21st Century another teenager on MySpace gets hit by a car." --Warren Ellis
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Bob Schroeck]

I'd just like to note that the jingoistic types who bandy this phrase back and forth never remember the original context in which it was coined:

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"My country, right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." -- Carl Schurz (1826-1906), in a speech before the US Senate, February 29, 1872

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I do quite like G.K. Chesterton's commentary on the jingoistic use:

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"My country, right or wrong" is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."

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-- Bob
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For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...

[DHBirr]

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...the jingoistic types who bandy this phrase back and forth never remember the original context....

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Alas, according to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, the jingoistic types are quoting the original coinage: the naval hero Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) said it as a toast in April 1816. "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our courntry, right or wrong."
John Quincy Adams, a few months later, wrote to his father on his misgivings about Decatur's toast, and added, "I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum. My toast would be, may our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right."
Schurz's version is better, though, I agree.
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[Bob Schroeck]

I stand corrected, and will remember to do better research in the future.

-- Bob
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For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...

[Luca Nicolai]

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, if Prodi's coalition can keep their shit together long enough to actually govern, things might start turning around some.

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If only, Mr. Fnord. Italian left has a long and unpleasant history of backstabbing and division. Even now the only thing that keep the "Union" together is the shared hate for Berlusconi. Hope it'll be enought.