And I proudly STAND UP next to you...I'm going crazytown with Americanism

I am aware, or at least I'm told, there is a world outside the United States. In keeping with my lofty aspirations of being not-uninformed, I occasionally venture outside the virtual pages of People Online and into the virtual pages of actual global news.

Sometimes I get scared. Sometimes I get smug.

Today I am smug.

I'm a patriot. I love our country and I believe the American Constitution is the culmination of the finest ideals in human history. We may mangle it, disregard it, take broad unwarranted liberties with it, but the document itself is as close to perfection as anything ever written. (Can you tell I watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington last night?) Politics aside, my anarcho-capitalist husband and I, the recently converted Libertarian, can agree that no national entity has ever come close to accomplishing something as glorious as the United States.

True, things are a little bit of a messed up version of awful these days. Our esteemed president lost his mind a few years ago and we've got war monkeys in the White House. Nothing new, historically speaking, but not great. So this is not the post where I talk about why everyone should tear up their party affiliation cards (you know, the one in your wallet next to your driver's license) and join their Libertarians for truth, justice and the American Way. That comes later. This is the post where I say the American Way is not, I say, is not anything to be ashamed of.

'Hold your tongue, lassie!' you're saying. 'We all know Americans are war mongering, barbarian, gun toting hillbillies trying to homogonize the world through McDonalds and Coca-Cola." I'm not going to debate with you, fictional Devil's Advocate in my head, I'm here to point out how the rest of the world...eeeehhh-not so great either.

Case in point, Europe. Europe's my favorite. There would be no 'United States' without the forward thinking European philosophers and clergy who dared to imagine a person's liberty is his own, not the property of a monarch. From French and British thinkers the entire notion of self-ownership was fully developed, until finally Americans committed their notions of freedom and equality to law, at least for the white guys.

Fast-forward 230 years or so. Europeans have a new king. Not the king of monarchy, oh no, that's soooo 18th century. The new king of Europe is 'the greater good'. Individual liberties are sacrificed, sometimes with deadly consequence for the 'greater good.' Taxation is such that I'm pretty sure French citizens actually pay the government for the privilege of working. And where does the tax revenue go? We all know it's not going toward military spending...so where does it go?

You tell me.

Scotland's employment rate stands at 74.8 per cent and continues to outperform that of the UK overall and almost all other countries within the European Union. Scotsman.com

And you know that 25% of the Scots aren't out on the streets, bag-piping for spare change....they're drawing generous unemployment checks. Subsidized by the guys with the jobs.

So the Scottish are bragging about their low 26% unemployment rate...good for them. You think our homegrown democrats are liberals? Oh hhooo no...you haven't seen liberalism, baby, until you 've looked at Europe. This is a continent where they're embarrassed to lock up criminals, wouldn't want to offend the criminal's self esteem. A continent where French students went crazytown and rioted over the prospect of being fired from their future nonexistant jobs. Same country, different rioters: these guys feel disenfranchised so they torch some daycares, churches and hundreds of cars and businesses. French authorities waited a full week before declaring a state of emergency. Wouldn't want to get in the way of the kids expressing themselves, you know. See a pattern here?

The heady notion of "rights" -- and especially the notion that your rights over-ride other people's rights, when those other people belong to some suspect class called "bosses" -- is an all too familiar feature of modern welfare state notions. Thomas Sowell

The Europeans have muddled 'rights' with 'privileges.' But I digress. This post is about America, not Europe. Wait...that's not true. It is about Europe. Because they think we're the backward ones. They think we're cruel for limiting our unemployment subsidies and not giving new mothers a year of paid maternity leave. And then they wonder why their economy is going to hell in a cheap pleather man-purse.

The lesson here is you can't have it both ways. You can't promote the economy while handing out free goodie bags to everyone in inconvenient circumstances. And if you go for the goodie bag approach, don't be surprised when you run out of bags and your destitute masses start torching you and your good intentions.

I'm a big fan of the American Way. Not crazy about war. Not a fan of the current administration. But the minute Hilary and her gang start trying to make us into Europe Part Deux, me and mine are taking a slow boat to Dubai.

I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack: The
Past is too much with her, and the people looking back. But the
glory of the Present is to make the Future free,— We love our land
for what she is and what she is to be. Henry Van Dyke

Beats Lee Greenwood.

http://here-in-idaho.blogspot.com/