Okay not so much a rant as something that annoys me a little, it is a small thing but as I keep seeing it time and time again I felt it needed a little clarification.
Have you ever noticed that on most of the forums and wbesites when you need to choose a language the vast majority only list English US and not English?
I'd like to clarify here there is NO SUCH THING as English US, it is not a REAL language. 
Changing a few dozen words does not a NEw language make.
If anything the US dialect of English could count as a regional variation in much the same way as certain words and slang vary across the UK with say Geordies or Liverpudlians or even the Scots (who although not english also speak English) etc. The have a bunch of words that differ from the standard for explaining the same things as well as regional contractions, abbreviations and slang.. but they are simply regional variations not new languages and the US dialect is no difference.
English is the language.. US is the dialect, there is however no such language as English US 
Maybe we could say it was an American usage of English but you might be able to make a case that it is a form of pidgin English. It has a polyglot vocabulary and the different kinds of pidgin English have preserved the basic grammatical features of English, at the same time incorporating a number of non-English syntactical characteristics.
The great majority of words in pidgin English are of English origin usually with Malay, Chinese, and Portuguese elements - I have little idea where most Americanisms originated, but similar principles seem to apply - though a linguist would no doubt argue that your original point re: regional variations was more kosher - even though America is not a region of anywhere...
Interesting..