America...Land of ...Lots of Stuff

"America...what a country!"

If you are too young to remember the comedian Yakov Smirnoff, too bad for you. He portrays a deer-in-the-headlights Russioan immigrant who was constantly amazed at what he found in this country. He's still performing in Branson, Missouri, where he has been voted the Comedian of the Year twice with lines like: "Only in American can a Russian and a Japanese own theaters in the middle of the Ozarks!" Of course, he's been here for twenty years or so, and thus, his "just got off the boat" shtick doesn't play so well anymore so he's branched out a bit. It is, however, his trademark, and I have to admit that I feel a LOT like he must have felt 20 years ago. I feel like I went to sleep and woke up somewhere else...not that it's a bad thing, just wierd.

Where else but in America...

Can you find people complaining loudly about paying almost $4/gallon for gas to fill their Escalades when it's been almost double that in many parts of the world for years?

Can you have universities suing and countersuing over the use of a logo, for God's sake?

Can you find a city, a nation and every sports channel in the country breathlessly reporting every ten minutes on the latest retirement/unretirement news about one player?

Can you find children with their own rooms, their own TVs, their own cell phones, their own video game machines and STILL complain how hard their lives are?

Can you find political candidates who say folksy thing like "You betcha!" and people LOVE it!

Can you find political candidates spending $1 million dollars A WEEK on advertising in ONE state? (Understand that $1 American is worth $1 trillion dollars in Zimbabwe where people live on NOTHING and eat a cup of grain a day!))

Can you find collegiate marching bands get suspended?

Can you find anything, anytime about anybody on the internet, while listening to iTunes on your Mac Airbook, knowing it will all be safe and sound tomorrow morning when you wake up?

Can you have the right to say what you want on a blog without fear of government intervention, knowing the Constitution is your protection.

America: "You betcha gotta luv it." I had to put that in quotes because I would never speak that way...and I do not expect my leaders to, either.