[bushisdamanin04]

"Dr Sparks now leads a Minnesota congregation."

Ah, from one Socialist utopia to another.

Actually, this guy's story seems to have more than a little hogwash to it.

[reformedliberal]

We were in NZ in 2000. We have friends there. We visited in 1975, as well.

In 1975, the anti-Americanism was in the form of drunken WWII veterans gloating that: "You Yanks are going down the tubes"
and leftists/students demonstrating against our resupply ships to Antarctica because they had nuclear power plants or *might* be carrying nuclear arms.

In November, 2000, we were being told that our country didn't have a President.

On our way home from NZ, we shared a layover in Tahiti with a German couple. They told us about their stay on a New Zealand guest farm. They were sitting around before dinner one night with the host and his wife when the 8-year old piped up:" You must be the European bastards." The Germans were bemused by this, only slightly insulted. It was if they didn't expect much better from colonials.

Our friend is an American expat married to a Kiwi and he tells us that he experiences anti-American prejudice even after 25 years.

Kiwis are very direct. They don't particularly care for us, never really have and aren't all that shy about letting us know it. In spite of this, they are mostly good folks, if too socialist for our tastes.