[url]www.lileks.com/screed/college.html[/url]

Beginning partway down the article which is certain to anger many in here, but:Much more.  Please read and comment!

I read Lileks most every day - he is one of the better bloggers in my view.

Of particular note is his essay ripping apart a British newspaper and their reporter for a condescending story on rural America - Alabama in particular, and on American chain restaurants.

The concluding paragraphs -

“Here’s the deal: we don’t need your support. But understand that if Iraqis had flown planes into Big Ben, we’d take out Saddam, because we understand that an attack on you is an attack on us. The West is not defined by Belgian edicts on acceptable levels of tomato sauce viscosity. The West is a set of ideas that need defending. Forgive us our passable wines; forgive our standardized veal. Forgive us our simple-mindedness, for we - from Alabama on outward to outer, distant Alabama and beyond - have a gut feeling that “quarrels” usually boil down to two sides. Forgive us for believing that fascism's side ought to lose.

And if we seem arrogant when it comes to beating fascism, forgive us once more, for we have something you don’t.

Practice. “

[url=http://www.lileks.com/screed/olivegarden.html] Notes from the Olive Garden[/url]

Mike