Of course, I come from Europe, so my opinion of it is different (especially on the socialised healthcare aspect) but I do see your point. If the Conservative Christian right wing had their way, we’d all live in a twee, homogized Disneyland. Ick!

I congratulate you on standing up for people’s liberties – surely THE MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPT OF THE AMERICAN NATION! The right to do what you want, marry who you want, read want you want, say what you want.

Personally I think the left wing are almost (almost) as bad as the right wing. The Christian right call themselves our ‘moral leaders’ and censor us and control our behaviour in the name of ‘family values’ and other crap. The liberal left censor us if we say anything politically incorrect – a well intentioned form of fascism.

The answer lies somewhere in between – but at least the liberals have the CONCEPT right. I can’t believe the right wing lunatics still think that people can choose their sexuality and that a dissenting voice is ‘unpatriotic’ or ‘obscene.’

America was founded on the principle of having the freedom to do, say, live however you want, as long as it doesn’t infringe anybody else’s rights to do the same.

You are so right about Europe. It is cosmopolitan, friendly, tolerant, accepting to all. Plus, as you say, paid vacations are mandatory. Everyone I know in the USA has to work for their vacation and they are lucky to get paid! It’s ridiculous! The UK is a brilliant (but expensive) place to live but they allow anyone equal rights under European human and civil rights laws. Most of Europe is tremendously queer friendly. It’s even a case of being friendly…..more that they are just people friendly and they don’t give a hoot about who a person sleeps with!

America is a great country. The people, largely, are fantastic, but what makes a country truly great is the reputation of it’s government around the world…

Anyway, just wanted to add that I liked what you said.

All the best, LP

i think it’s so strange that people think patriotism is the same as blind admiration. if i didn’t love this place, i wouldn’t care about fixing it’s problems – i’d just get the fuck out.

more eloquently, “a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” – edward abbey