Who's knocking "the entire country of the United States"? All people have been saying is that you've got some really silly people and some really silly ways of doing things. Would anyone actually disagree with that? Noone is implying that the USA is unique in that respect, just that your stupid things are sometimes different from other people's stupid things.

"They could not go to Manchester because moving the equipment required is prohibitive." What kind of equipment is that then?