@Sully –
Don’t operate on yourself if you have heavy machinery.
If you start to look faint, try to reach me here at the center.
http://www.engrish.com/

My meds have kicked in, I’m calmer now. I love everyone unreservedly, even the French.

Margo – “Sarkovy and Brown, though, don’t deserve to have to handle this all alone. ”

I respect your opinion but don’t share it. Britain and France have been living in a post-history fantasy world for decades. Their militaries are hollow shells, their people are happy to free ride on us while carping at us with superior sneers on their faces, and their leaders are promoting a bureaucratic tyranny in Brussels which refuses to abide by popular referendums seeking to limit its power. Britain is not the worst of the European nations, and Sarkozy was not in power when France outright conspired to betray us in the runup to the Iraq war but they bear responsibility if only as citizens of their countries during that period. And they and the Germans lent all sorts of aid to Obama during the campaign because he is, in fact, the sort of toothless European style president they have always wanted.

The rational part of my mind knows and accepts that we probably should pull their chestnuts out of the fire in service to our own self interest; but I think they and their peoples certainly “deserve” whatever they get if things go south, and, were I in charge, I would extract a high price for any co-operation or help we give.

The European nations have mostly been near useless to us as allies for decades. Limited usefulness alone would be bad enough if they made an effort to pull their weight, but they don’t, and they’re actually scornful of help.

@Peter Shalen – (Just another reason for you to be thankful.)
University health plans ain’t much, are they?
If you’re a VP for a multinational Pharma, a hospital VP, surgeon, internist, partner in a law firm, or just a child of a multimillionaire factory owner you never see a medical bill.

@fuster – You definitely don’t mingle with the same crowd as I do.

@Peter Shalen – Their firms pay for their health care, so what’s all the hassle about?

@fuster – And what’s their take on the health care bills?

@Peter Shalen – I guess I never got to hang with those folks. The elitists I’ve known found it quite provincial to fail to mock that Eurotrash.

By Margo:  
Sarko[z]y and Brown, though, don’t deserve to have to handle this all alone.

Just as Bush didn’t deserve to have to handle Saddam all alone when those bastards Chirac and Schroeder were in office.

@fuster – First European president, no. He’s our first president to be besotted with Europe, as so much of our cultural élite is. For example, for most of my Facebook friends, the compelling reason why we need a government health care plan is that all the countries in Western Europe have one. The question of how it would actually affect life in the US doesn’t come up.