This weekend we celebrate the birth of the greatest nation on Earth. It can be depressing to think that this is the same nation that produced Joseph McCarthy, Aldrich Ames and Bernie Madoff.
But we also gave the world Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Flavor Flav, so, you know, we can't be all bad.
In fact conflict, contradiction and turmoil are rooted in the very fabric of any great, creative nation. As Orson Wells said in The Third Man:
"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
So, we take the bad with the good and through it all, the United States is at once the most reviled and envied country in history.
And speaking of history, some was made this past week:
"Bernie gets the max!
Going to jail until death.
Live long, DON'T prosper.
Fair play rules in Court.
Hire based on merit, not race.
Sonia got it wrong.
Start to leave Iraq.
They can take care of themselves?
Not very likely.
Minnesota done!
Al Franken in the Senate!
At last, it's over!
Tough times for Arnold.
California is flat broke.
I.O.U.s must do.
The U.S. is fat.
Mississippi is the worst.
Dude - have a salad.
Mark Sanford is nuts.
He really needs to shut up.
Resigning might help.
It's the 4th of July weekend. Don't forget to set something on fire (a burger), blow something up (fireworks or the Taliban) and make a lot of noise (repeatedly confess to an affair in Argentina). It's the American way.
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