is the world turning against america

[Booko]

More seriously, I do all the time run into Americans who think they know how the world ought to run its business, and they are just as much bores here as they are abroad. Travel doesn't make you a more interesting and exotic bore, it just makes you a bore who's spread his borish behavior far and wide.

I run into them as well, and I usually extricate myself asap.

There's a difference between travel, sightseeing, and vacation. We Americans seem to lump them into the same thing, but they're not. What many Americans do abroad is sightseeing. They are not interested in really getting to know anyone from a different place -- just taking snaps to impress the neighbors and buying stuff mostly.

And maybe it's just the people I know, but most of my fellow Americans have not idea what a "vacation" is. The other industrialized nations are far ahead of us in this regard as well. No wonder we're all so stressed out. We never make time to be anything else.

 

[Booko]

There are quite a few enlightened Amerkansi here, but birds of a feather ay? One day, I truly hope thing settle down a bit. While the people of that country are apathetic to it's businesses throwing their weight around in such a violent fashion I'll keep niggling and poking til enough of them get their arse into gear and put a stop to it.

Then you can only hope more people get their news from Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" on the Comedy Channel, since it has more newsworthy items than any of the actual broadcast "news" shows do.

If you want a sample of what his show is like, you can watch skits online at Comedy Central's website. His "reports" on matters of US foreign and domestic policy are pithy and contain more truth than you'd ever get in the actual media. Go figure.