Re: Dumb Americans (Warning: Zero Audi Content)

[Audial <Audial@aol.com>]

Before this thread dies it's natural death, I have to put something in here,
for the foreign members of the Qlist.

Americans are not dumb.  Contradictory, yes.  Ambitious and overzealously
litigous, yes.  At times trying to rely too much on "common sense" to "solve"
complicated problems, yes.  

If you are not from America, maybe the best way to get a grasp on this country
and its faults and strengths are to take a picture of Mickey Mouse and put it
next to a picture of a mushroom cloud.  Realize that _the same country_ has
produced more of each than any other on the planet.  Then search your mind for
the missing ingredients that can harmonize these two images.  Good luck, many
have tried but few can claim success.  And when you try, remember that your
description will have to account for people as far apart as J. Edgar Hoover
and Noam Chomsky, Reverend Billy Graham and Marilyn Manson, Martin Luther
King, Jr., and [current national pastor of the KKK] Thomas Robb,  American
Indians telling stories with the sand and Robert Mapplethorpe with a bullwhip
in his butt.  It is a _very_ strange place sometimes, and you can often cross
the border of strange in the span of a city block.  Other places are a little
easier to get a read on - Liechtenstein, for example.  


Best Wishes,
Alex