[decimon]

Ping

[Cisco Nix]

“But there is, nevertheless, a deep-seated European instinct that says the United States might be all right if it would only tweak its attitude towards healthcare, or gun control or the death penalty.”

Yup, met a bunch of these Europeans that come over here and bitch about America and lack of socialism. They hate Europe and come here to what? Turn us into Europe. And they are succeeding.

[freedumb2003]

This Steynean passage cracked me up:

Endless sub-clauses roam across prairies of newsprint in search of the point, like homesteader wagons on the Oregon trail circling around a knackered old buffalo.

This passage touched me and made me proud to be an American (bolding added):

There were no taxis and my fellow passenger insisted, without checking with him, that her husband would happily drive me to my hotel.

It was a round trip for him in the Arctic midnight of a public holiday of perhaps two or three hours.

I expected to detect at least a flicker of surprise on his face when this was first put to him, but there was none.

"This is America son," he told me, "We help each other out."

All in all, a very fair assessment from foreign eyes.

[Yorlik803]

Good article.....

[Army Air Corps]

The Tea Party movement is successful because it taps into the deep American suspicion that all federal government apart from defence spending, is a kind of bureaucratic boondoggle, dreamed up by larcenous conspiracists in Washington to allow them to line their pockets by picking ours.

Our elected officials do little to disabuse us of this notion.

[parisa]

Wow, BBC!!! I’m floured!

It actually brought tears to my eyes, especially knowing the source.

[a fool in paradise]

But there is, nevertheless, a deep-seated European instinct that says the United States might be all right if it would only tweak its attitude towards healthcare, or gun control or the death penalty.

Europe might be alright if they just cast off their notions of royalty, birthright heritage, guilds, socialism, and self-loathing for Western excellence.

[a fool in paradise]

The United States pulled Europe’s fat out of the fire (and their head out of their collective arse) 3 times in the 20st Century (WWI, WWII, and the Cold War).