How Europe sees us

Varifrank has a really nice piece about trying to explain to Europeans how our country works. Very good reading.

For the most part I really don't care what the rest of the world thinks of us. And the good opinion of the U.N.? Let's see, Sudan and Libya on the Human Rights Council? Crap on the U.N. I do realize that part of the problem with Europe is that it seems rare for many of them to really understand how this place works, and from their point of view it must be pretty strange. However, it works. Britain has reached the point you cannot defend yourself against attack without fearing a prison sentance; most places here, not a worry. Despite the efforts of a bunch of weenies, we don't have sauces, soups and stews being taxed differently depending on what size strainer they go through. Most of Europe, the ownership of arms is a privilege granted by the government under strict controls(after all, you can't just let the peasants run around with arms, makes them harder to control, don't you know?); most places here, nope, just obey the law in your use of them. One of the reasons a lot of us seriously distrust the idea of 'gun control', i.e. personal disarmament laws, is that for a long time such were directly aimed at keeping certain groups from owning arms; big difference between those and the current proposals is that instead of some clowns trying to keep certain groups helpless, now those clowns want everybody disarmed and dependant on the gummint for protection. Screw that.

Shortly after I married my first wife, her mother wrote back to her family in Germany about the marriage, and that she was moving to Oklahoma City with me. Mother-in-law'd sent them a map of Texas, where they lived, years before so they could see the places they went on trips. Shortly after notice of the move, they wrote back that OKC wasn't on the map, was it a new city? Mother-in-law wrote back that it was in the next state north and included a U.S. map. The shocked response was 'All that is ONE country?!?', matters of scale make a difference also.

I'm all for mutual understanding, it's just that understanding does not mean you have to change yourself according to someone else's thoughts.