“Welcome to America. Now get out of my way.”
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This British journalist ecountered a lot of the weirdness (compared to the rest of the world) of this country (read the article), but it’s the last paragraph of his post that nails it.
But it’s the idiocracy that really gets me down. The constant coaxing you have to do to get anything done. “No” is the default setting whether you want to change lanes on a motorway or get a drink on a Sunday. It’s like trying to negotiate with a donkey. Once, I urged a cop in Pensacola, Florida, to use his common sense and let me load a van in the no loading zone, since the airport was shut and it would make no difference. “Sir,” he said, “you don’t need common sense when you’ve got laws.”
That, I think, probably says it all.
We Europeans tend to make two assumptions when we judge the US:
1) The US is just a version of Europe with a different geography, and
2) Common sense is common
Assumption No 1 is easily proven to be false by e.g. the current health care debate in the US, and No 2 is superoptimistic, even within your own family, not to mention a country of hundreds of peoples, founded by 13 different anarchies who grudgingly ceeded some power to a central government under the explicit condition that they would take the power back from the federal authorities at any provocation whatsoever.
What is amazing is that it works at all, given the bureaucracies, lawyers and media that try to kill it off.
–as for fat people and their “electraglides”
Worse still, now everyone and their mother have those four wheeled walkers.
They advertise both on TV 24/7 in the NYC area with the tagline “if your insurance won’t pay for it, we will give it to you absolutely free”
(it’s an old medicaid-medicare subsidy scam that’s been going on for years on the street, but now that major cutbacks are on the horizon (and some already in play) it appears they are trying to sell as much as possible before the subsidy is fully killed, scrutinized and/or broke. –hence the saturation bombing on tv)
One thing we have in spades here is the “if it’s free it’s for me” crowd that is always mumbling, “F that, I’m gettin minez too”
’nuff said?
The walkers are largely being exploited for free rides on the bus (handicapped in chairs ride MTA buses for free in NYC -walkers are supposed to pay half fare, but most never pay.
Once off the bus, they trot away like it’s ok..
Get on the bus at the wrong time and the ride can take 25 minutes longer than usual as the chair lift is cycled multiple times within a 15 block stretch.
On the flip side, I have never seen so many friggen HUGE people in my life now that these things are being handed out like candy.
You will get run over by one at the Pathmark on 125th and Lex if your not careful and in there at the front of the foodstamp cycle. (esp in the ice cream isle)
They actually have a small fleet of them out front by the shopping carts for those who feel the 6 month supply of fat stored on their body needs to be topped off, yet have not figured out how to get one themselves yet.
Something to think about:
When the food riots hit next year and these people start burning the decades old fat stores on their bodies for lack off food.
No doubt, we are going to see a lot of them hospitalized with all sorts of interesting “effects” as the multitude of toxins stored in their fat is released to be burned for energy.
It’ll be interesting to see how this new “toxic fat shock” syndrome will be spun in the news and what conclusions will be drawn as to the original source of the toxins.
/rant over
-s
#4 – I think that purple hat makes her look fat.
Dang it I can’t find it now. Saw a youtube clip of a group of guys that basically pulled Leno’s man on the street interviews in every country. The made a very effective case that it’s not the US the entire world is stupid. I tend to agree.
Well, by definition, half of the people in the world are below average.
Do these pants make me look fat? No, your fat makes you look fat!
This was done a decade ago or more by author Bill Bryson. Check out “I’m a Stranger Here Myself”. He nails a lot of goofy U.S. customs and policies.
Top Gear rocks. Jeremy Clarkson is a douchebag.