Bollocks

Imagine, for one second, the problem of numerous people attempting to identify a shooter. They might see a man in police style paramilitary gear whilst nearer at hand they see someone waving a gun round apparently looking for targets or about to shoot the "policeman".

Next the real police arrive and see several armed suspects. How long do you think any of these civilians would have survived?

"Indeed. For most of the 20th century America was what most of the rest of the world aspired to be in every respect: its economy, its science, its universities, its films, its music, its artists, its vast energy and optimism. But these past ten years or so it's all gone badly into reverse: what the rest of the world sees when it looks at JFK's City Set on a Hill is industrial decline, a hollowed-out democracy, imploded finances, gun massacres, morbid obesity, Creation Science, whittling away of women's rights, Abu Ghraib, Fox News and dingy petty-minded bigotry of the vilest kind. It's frankly not a very appealing picture, and it's noticeable how in the UK even many Conservatives are now beginning to look elsewhere for their social models, to Scandinavia and Germany.

Pity it had to end like that: the USA had so much going for it. But that's what you get for letting the lunatics take over the asylum. Ask the Germans."

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