Good heavens I wish some of you could step back and observe your own words in context. Here we have a natural catastrophe and human tragedy of staggering proportions, and even NOW we have so many who just MUST make a mudcat thread into "Americans are ignorant," "Americans are stupid," Americans are selfish," "Americans are greedy." (No, we don't watch news about the tragedy because it doesn't involve oil or textiles.)

I stumbled into mudcat just before 9/11, and I read a lot of insightful thoughts which helped me get my brain around that tragedy. That's what made me stick around and keep reading, but criminy, I'm beginning to understand where Martin Gibson is coming from. The incessant "Americans are" themes are SO tiring. They permeate and degrade almost any worthwhile reading.

My apologies for this interuption to those who are trying to focus on the subject at hand. Back to it.